CHINA 

THE 
LONG- 
-LIVED 
EMPIRE 

BY 

ERSCIDMORE 

LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 


PRESENTED  BY 

MRS. 
ERIC   SCHMIDT 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2007  witii  funding  from 

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China 

The  Long-Lived  Empire 


.1  Ml!  r 


THE  EMPRESS  DOWAGER 

SHOWISc;   (.OSTGME   BEKOKE  TWENTY-FIVE   YEAKK  OK  AGE 
Fruni  a  |uiiutiuK  on  i<ilk  by  Li  8bih  (')i'uaa 


China 

The  Long-Lived  Empire 


By 

Eliza  Ruhamah  ^cidmore 

Author  of  "Jinrikisha  Days  in  Japan,"   and 
"Java:  The  Garden  of  the   East" 


New  York 

The  Century  Co. 

1900 


Copyright,  1899,  1900,  by 
The  Century  Co. 


The  DeVinne  Press. 


TO 

MY    MOTHER 

MY 

MOST    PATIENT    READER 

THIS    BOOK    IS 

LOVINGLY    DEDICATED 


PREFACE 

In  adding  to  the  long  list  of  books  about  China, 
one  .can  only  hope  to  give  another  individual  expe- 
rience and  point  of  view,  to  add  new  testimony  to 
that  so  abundantly  offered.  No  one  can  cover  the 
whole  field,  give  the  only  key,  or  utter  the  last  word ; 
and  during  seven  visits  to  China  in  the  last  fifteen 
years,  the  mystery  of  its  people  and  the  enigma  of 
its  future  have  only  increased.  It  is  such  an  impos- 
sible, incomprehensible  country  that  one  labors  vainly 
to  show  it  clearly  to  others.  To  the  hypercritical 
residents  of  treaty  ports,  aU  writers  have  gone  astray 
among  the  plainest  Chinese  facts ;  but  as  these  same 
critics  often  controvert  one  another,  the  outsider  can 
claim  a  certain  privilege,  while  at  the  same  time  beg- 
ging their  indulgence  for  his  views. 

Every  effort  has  been  made  to  attain  accuracy,  but 
in  the  face  of  so  much  conflicting  testimony,  of  so 
many  contradictory  statements,  no  one  can  expect 
general  indorsement.  The  chaos  of  all  things  Chinese 
is  well  illustrated  in  the  spelling  or  transliteration  of 
the  characters  for  place-names.  One  finds  Chifu  and 
Chef  oo  used  with  equal  authority ;  Chili,  Chihli,  or 
Dshy-ly ;    Taku   or   Dagu ;    Kau-lung   or   Kowloou. 


X  PREFACE 

Each  European  spells  according  to  the  genius  of  his 
own  language,  and  in  several  instances  general  Eng- 
lish usage  does  not  agree  with  the  form  or  forms 
given  by  Consul  Playfair  in  his  "  Geograpliical  Dic- 
tionary." The  majority  of  sinologues  are  agreed  that 
the  English  spelling  or  transliteration  of  place-names 
used  by  the  Imperial  Marithne  Customs  on  letter-heads 
and  postal  canceling-stamps  should  be  accepted  by 
foreigners  in  China.  There  is  no  society  among  Chi- 
nese literati  for  the  Romanization  or  uniform  trans- 
literation of  Chinese  characters ;  and  Chinese  delegates 
to  international  Oriental  congresses  in  Europe  are 
usually  silent,  while  German,  English,  and  French 
sinologues  argue  fervently-  for  or  against  te  or  teh,  or 
other  fundamental  syllables.  The  Twelfth  Oriental 
Congress  at  Rome,  in  1899,  left  this  transliteration 
still  an  unfinished  question,  although,  as  one  of  the 
secretaries  of  Section  IV,  it  was  my  privilege  to  make 
record  of  two  long  sessions  of  excited  debate. 

I  have  a  great  indebtedness  to  acknowledge  to  the 
many  authors  whose  works  are  quoted  and  refei'red  to 
in  this  volume,  and  to  many  residents  in  treaty  ports 
whose  courtesies  and  hospitalities  relieved  the  depres- 
sion whicli  Chinese  environment  and  the  discouraging 
state  of  China,  the  nation,  too  often  cause. 

E.  R.  S. 

"\VASlIIN(iT()X,  D.  C, 

March  31,  1900. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.  The  Degenerate  Empire 1 

II.  The  Edge  of  Chihli          .        .        .        .        .  13 

III.  Tientsin 20 

IV.  Shanhaikwan 30 

V,  As  Marco  Polo  Went 50 

VI.  Pei-ching,  the  Northern  Capital         .        .         61 

VII.  The  Tatar  City  of  Kublai  Khan        .        .        .85 

VIII.  Imperial,  Purple  Peking        ....        102 

IX.  The  Decadence  OF  the  Manchus         .        .        .117 

X.  TszE  Hsi  An  the  Great 127 

XI.  The  Strangers'  Quarter 143 

XII.  Christian  Missions 158 

XIII.  Tatar  Fus  and  Fairs 1C6 

XIV.  Chinese  Peking 188 

XV.  Without  the  Walls 201 

XVI.  The  Environs  of  Peking        ....  215 

XVII.  The  Great  Wall  op  China 227 

XVIII.  The  Valley  of  the  Ming  Tombs    .        .        .  250 

XIX.  Suburban  Temples 266 

XX.  To  Shanghai 275 

XXI.  The  Great  Bore  of  Hangchow  ....  294 


xii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

XXII.  In  a  Provincial  Yamun 319 

XXIII.  The  Lower  Yangtsze 333 

XXIV.  The  River  of  Fragrant  Tea-fields     .        .       353 
XXV.  A  Thousand  Miles  up  the  Yangtsze        .        .  377 

XXVI.  A  KwATSZE  ON  the  Yangtsze         .        .  406 

XXVII.  The  City  op  Canton 430 

XXVm.  The  Chinese  New  Year 444 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

The    Empress    Dowager— Showing    Costume    before 

Twenty-five  Years  of  Age       .        .        .  Frontispiece 
From  a  painting  on  silk  by  Li  Sliili  Cli'uan. 

PAGE 

Hunting-eagles  Bound  for  Manchuria  .        .        .        .33 

The  Sea-shore  End  of  the  Great  Wall      ...         41 

Debris  of  the  Great  Wall  of  China        .        .        .        .45 

A  Manchurian  Samovar 49 

Native  Boats  on  the  Pei-ho  River 53 

Walls  of  Peking,  with  Continuous  Stream  of  Camels    63 

Walls  of  Peking,  and  Moat  in  Winter       ...         63 

Map  of  Peking 67 

Pailow  at  the  West  End  op  Legation  Street   .        .         71 

The  Manchu  Head-dress 75 

A  Peking  Cart 79 

Porcelain  Pailow  before  the  Hall  of  Classics     .        .     89 

British  Tourist  in  Disguise 95 

Sun-dial  at  the  Hall  of  Classics 99 

The  Viceroy  Li  Hung  Chang 113 

A  Manchu  Hair-pin,  Back  View 129 

Kang  Yu  Wei '.        ...        137 

From  "  Harper's  Weekly" 

Fruit-stall  in  Front  of  the  French  Legation      .        ,  147 

At  the  Old  Fu 169 

xiii 


xiv  LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

FAOE 

Trained  Birds 177 

Feather-dusters  for  Sale— Entrance-gate  of  Lukg- 

FU-SSU 181 

Honeyed  Crab-apples 184 

Pigeon  Whistles 187 

Chrysanthemum  Gardener 211 

Chrysanthemum  Garden— Winter  Quarters  .       211 

Coal  Mining  and  Transportation 217 

A  Caravan  Outside  the  Walls  of  Peking  .        .  229 

In  the  Nankou  Pass 235 

The  Pa-ta-ling  Gate 241 

The  Great  Wall .        .        .245 

Catching  Singing  Insects 257 

Chinese  Inn  near  Peking 263 

A  Suburban  Canal 283 

In  Old  Shanghai 289 

A  Marble  Bridge 29G 

Map  of  Hangchow  Bay  to  Tsiex-taxg  River,  with 
Waterways  from  Shanghai  to  Hainino,  Hang- 
chow   301 

The  Great  Bore 305 

Junks  Riding  in  on  the  After-rush  .        .  .311 

On  the  Bank 323 

Little  Orphan  Island,  in  the  Yangtsze  below  Lake 

POVANG 343 

In  the  <Jkken-tea  Country  around  Lake  Poyang       .        349 

The  Nativi':  Bind,  Hankow,  at  Low  Water    .        .        .  361 

Approach  and  Masonry  Front  of  Cave  Temple  near 

Ichang 381 

The  Foreign  Settlement  of  Ichang  and  the  Graveyard 

Golf-links 387 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xv 

PAGE 

Stepping  the  Mast  at  Ichang 391 

Otter-fishing  at  Ichang 395 

Valley  behind  Ichang;   Flooded  Rice-fields;  Ichang 

Pagoda  on  the  River-bank  in  the  Distance   .         399 

Sails  in  the  Gorge  of  Ichang,  with  a  Red  Life-boat  in 

the  Foreground 403 

Trackers  on  the  Upper  Yangtsze 409 

Descending  Ta  Dung  Rapids 413 

Old  Wrinkles,  the  Fo'c's'le  Cook 418 

Entrance  of  Ichang  Gorge,  Upper  End      ....  427 
In  the  Temple  of  the  Five  Hundred  Genii      .  .  435 

The  Execution-ground  at  Canton       ....        439 
Five-storied  Pagoda  on  City  Wall,  Canton   .        .        .  443 

A  Canton  Street 445 

The  Crooked  Bamboo,  Fa-Ti  Gardens,  Canton       .        .  449 
The  Creek  between   Shameen  and  the  Native  City, 
Canton 453 


CHINA 

THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 


CHINA 

THE    LONG-LIVED    EMPIRE 


THE    DEGENERATE    EMPIRE 


jHINA  has  been  an  old  country  for  forty 
centuries.  It  has  been  dying  of  old  age 
and  senile  decay  for  all  of  this  century ; 
its  vitality  running  low,  heart-stilling 
and  soul-benumbing,  slowly  ossifying 
for  this  hundred  years.  During  this  wonderful  cen- 
tury of  Western  progress  it  has  swung  slowly  to 
a  standstill,  to  a  state  of  arrested  existence,  then  ret- 
rograded, and  the  world  watches  now  for  the  last 
symptoms  and  extinction. 

But  it  lives,  nevertheless,  the  ancestor  kingdom 
of  all  the  world,  the  long-lived,  undying  empire. 
Since  time  prehistoric,  its  vitality  has  often  ebbed 
low  in  recurring  cycles,  its  history  has  often  been  re- 
peated in  these  ages  since  it  gave  civilization,  arts, 
letters,  languages  to  the  Far  East,  saw  ephemeral 
Persia  and  Macedon,  Babylonia,  Assyria,  Egypt, 
Greece,  and  Rome  rise  and  fall,  watched  them  built 
up  and  broken  up,  while  it  endured. 
1  1 


2  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

This  present  "  break-up  of  China,"  a  catch-phrase 
wliich  has  lately  roused  Occidental  interest  and  anx- 
iety, is  an  old  story,  very  often  repeated  in  this  oldest 
surviviufz:  empire  of  the  world,  an  old-new  subject 
fittingly  dismissed  in  Colonel  Yide's  small  foot-note 
thirty  years  ago :  "  It  has  broken  up  before." 

Such  a  crisis,  a  mere  break-up  or  change  of  dy- 
nasty, is  nothing  new  to  Confucius's  people,  and  China 
will  continue  to  break  up  at  intervals  for  thousands 
of  more  years  to  come ;  the  Chinese  remaining  the 
one  same,  hojnogeneous,  unchanging,  incomprehensi- 
ble people— the  Chinese,  only  the  Chinese,  forever 
the  Chinese,  no  matter  under  what  alien  flag  they 
toil,  by  what  outer  people  they  are  conquered,  or  be- 
nevolently protected  in  inalienable  spheres  of  influ- 
ence. The  physical  endurance  and  vitality  of  the 
people  as  a  race  are  no  more  remarkable  than  the 
endurance  of  the  nation,  of  the  body  politic  known  as 
China,  the  survival  of  the  decayed,  crumbling,  honey- 
combed old  empire  long  after  it  should  have  logically 
ceased  to  hold  together  or  exist. 

Defying  age  and  time  and  progress  and  the  harsh 
im})act  of  Western  civilization,  China  continues,  and 
will  continue,  to  be  China— whether  "for  the  Chi- 
nese "  only  some  centuries  can  tell.  That  same  sliib- 
])oleth  of  tlie  handful  of  reformers  to-day,  "China  for 
the  Chinese,"  is  thousands  of  years  old,  too,  heard 
each  time  tlie  em])ire  was  exploited  by  northern  Ta- 
tars, each  time  a  native  dynasty  arose.  It  is  raised 
now,  as  time-honored  custom  ordains,  when  yet  an- 
other Tatar  c(»n(|iu'i-or  advances  from  the  north,  and 
vital  thrusts  are  bciiiu- dealt  from  the  south,  the  east. 


THE  DEGENERATE  EMPIRE  3 

and  the  west.  There  was  a  worse  state  prevailing 
when  Confucius  wandered  from  state  to  state,  trying 
to  rouse  the  rulers  and  people,  and  time  may  have 
only  swung  round  again  for  another  great  moral 
teacher  to  rise  up,  scourge  and  lead  this  certainly 
chosen  people. 

The  Occident  is  fortunate  in  assisting  at  one  of  the 
many  great  downfalls,  but  it  need  not  assume  that 
this  is  at  all  the  end,  the  absolute  and  final  ruin,  the 
last  wreck  and  crash  of  the  old  empire,  of  its  curious, 
four-thousand-year-old  civilization,  all  because  the 
present  parvenu  Manchu  dynasty  happens  to  fall.  "  It 
has  broken  up  before." 

One  may  see  now  the  same  ancient,  original  China, 
the  same  conditions  as  in  the  middle  ages;  and  he 
may  have  every  theory  upset,  every  sense  and  senti- 
ment offended,  by  an  old  civilization  in  rank  decay. 
This  spectacle  awaits  one  everywhere  in  the  eighteen 
provinces,  and  will  continue  to,  through  the  years,  as 
historical  plays  continue  for  days  in  a  Chinese  the- 
ater. The  spectator  need  not  hasten  to  his  seat  be- 
cause the  curtain  has  risen.  The  present  "  break-up "' 
will  be  more  than  a  long- running  trilogy  on  the 
world's  stage,  and  the  audiences  will  go  in  and  out 
many  times  before  the  curtain  falls  on  even  this 
Manchu  interlude  in  the  empire  drama. 

The  world,  our  crude,  young,  boisterous  Western 
side  of  it,  has  only  begun  to  discover  Asia.  Since 
there  are  no  more  new  worlds  to  conquer,  it  must 
grapple  with  the  oldest  one.  The  Oriental  is  the 
problem  of  the  century  to  come,  as  man  was  the  ques- 
tion of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  woman  the  mys- 


4  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

tery  of  the  one  just  closed.  Our  Western  world  only 
discovered  actual  China  in  the  year  1894,  after  the 
battle  of  the  Yalu  River  and  the  other  sweeping  victo- 
ries of  the  Japanese  war.  Before  that  war,  an  imagi- 
nary, fantastic,  picturesque,  spectacular,  and  bizarre 
sort  of  a  bogy  China  liad  haunted  European  minds 
—that  indefinable,  romantic  specter,  the  Yellow  Peril, 
that  no  lessons  of  previous  military  campaigns,  nor 
repeated  exposures,  could  lay.  The  world  wanted  to 
be  humbugged  about  China.  It  hugged  its  delusions 
to  the  last  moment  of  absurdity,  read  f air}^  and  Mun- 
chausen tales,  and  was  deaf  to  what  Gordon  and  Yule 
and  Wilson  distinctly  said. 

"  One  cannot  but  wonder, "  said  Abbe  Hue,  "  how 
people  in  Europe  could  ever  take  it  into  their  heads 
that  China  was  a  kind  of  vast  academy  peopled  with 
sages  and  philosophers.  .  .  .  The  Celestial  Empire 
has  much  more  resemblance  to  an  immense  fair, 
whei'e,  amid  a  perpetual  flux  and  reflux  of  buyers 
and  sellers,  of  brokers,  loungers,  and  thieves,  you  see 
in  all  quarters  stages  and  mountebanks,  jokers  and 
comedians,  laljoring  uninterruptedly  to  amuse  the 
public." 

Wlien  Oriental  met  Oriental  in  1894,  the  bubble  of 
China  burst,  its  measure  was  taken,  and  the  huge 
Humpty-Dumpty  of  the  Far  East,  General  Wilson's 
"  boneless  giant,"  fell,  and  relegated  the  Yellow  Peril 
of  militant  Europe's  nightmares  to  the  consideration 
of  comic  journals  only. 

Xo  Occidental  ever  saw  within  or  understood  the 
working  of  tlie  yellow  brain,  whicli  starts  from  and 
arrives  at  a  different  \io'u)\  by  reverse  and  inverse 


THE  DEGENERATE  EMPIRE  5 

processes  we  can  neither  follow  nor  comprehend.  No 
one  knows  or  ever  will  really  know  the  Chinese — the 
heart  and  soul  and  springs  of  thought  of  the  most 
incomprehensible,  unfathomable,  inscrutable,  contra- 
dictory, logical,  and  illogical  people  on  earth.  Of  all 
Orientals,  no  race  is  so  alien.  Not  a  memory  nor  a 
custom,  not  a  tradition  nor  an  idea,  not  a  root-word 
nor  a  symbol  of  any  kind  associates  our  past  with 
their  past.  There  is  little  sympathy,  no  kinship  nor 
common  feeling,  and  never  affection  possible  between 
the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the  Chinese.  Nothing  in  Chinese 
character  or  traits  appeals  warmly  to  our  hearts  or 
imagination,  nothing  touches;  and  of  all  the  people 
of  earth  they  most  entirely  lack  ''  soul,"  charm,  mag- 
netism, attractiveness.  We  may  yield  them  an  intel- 
lectual admiration  on  some  grounds,  but  no  warmer 
pulse  beats  for  them.  There  are  chiefly  points  of  con- 
tradiction between  them  and  ourselves. 

Their  very  numbers  and  sameness  appal  one,  the 
frightful  likeness  of  any  one  individual  to  all  the 
other  three  hundred  odd  millions  of  his  own  people. 
Everywhere,  from  end  to  end  of  the  vast  empire,  one 
finds  them  cast  in  the  same  unvarying  physical  and 
mental  mold— the  same  yellow  skin,  hard  features, 
and  harsh,  mechanical  voice ;  the  same  houses,  graves, 
and  clothes ;  the  same  prejudices,  superstitions,  and 
customs ;  the  same  selfish  conservatism,  blind  worship 
of  precedent  and  antiquity ;  a  monotony,  unanim- 
ity, and  repetition  of  life,  character,  and  incident, 
that  offend  one  almost  to  resentment.  Everywhere 
on  their  tenth  of  the  globe,  from  the  edge  of  Siberia 
to  the  end  of  Cochin  Cliina,  the  same  ignoble  queue 


6  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

and  the  senseless  cotton  shoe  are  worn ;  everywhere 
this  fifth  of  the  human  race  is  sunk  in  dirt  and  dis- 
order, decadent,  degenerate,  indifferent  to  a  fallen 
estate,  consumed  with  conceit,  selfish,  vain,  cowardly, 
and  superstitious,  without  imagination,  sentiment, 
chivalry,  or  sense  of  humor,  combating  with  most 
zeal  anything  that  would  alter  conditions  even  for 
the  better,  indifferent  as  to  who  rules  or  usurps  the 
throne.  There  is  no  word  or  written  character  for 
patriotism  in  the  language,  hardly  good  ground  in 
their  minds  and  hearts  for  planting  the  seed  of  that 
sentiment,  but  there  are  one  hundred  and  fifty  ways 
of  writing  the  cliaracters  for  good  luck  and  long  life. 
And  yet  in  no  country  have  political  martyrs  ever 
died  more  nobly  and  unselfishly  than  those  reformers 
executed  at  Peking  in  1898.  Although  Mongol,  Ming, 
and  Manchu  won  the  empire  by  arms,  the  soldier  is 
despised,  as  much  the  butt  of  dramatists  as  the  priest. 
There  is  no  respect  or  consideration  for  woman,  who 
is  a  despised,  inferior,  and  soulless  creature,  a  chat- 
tel ;  yet  three  times  in  these  last  forty  years  the 
dragon  throne  has  been  seized  and  the  country  hur- 
ried on  to  ruin  by  tlie  same  high-tempered,  strong- 
willed,  vindictive  old  Manchu  dowager  odalisk. 

It  is  a  land  of  contradictions,  puzzles,  mysteries, 
enigmas.  Chinese  character  is  only  the  more  com- 
plex, iiiti'icate,  baffling,  inscrutal)lo,  and  exasperating 
eacli  time  and  the  longer  it  confronts  one.  Wliatever 
decision  one  arrives  at,  he  is  soon  given  reason  to 
retreat  from  it. 

I  gave  up  tlie  conundrum  of  this  people,  abjured 
''  that  oilskin  mystery,  the  Chinaman,"  more  devoutly 


THE  DEGENERATE  EMPIRE  7 

each  day  of  six  visits  to  China,  and  on  the  seventh 
visit  the  questions  were  that  many  times  the  more 
baffling.  One  can  both  agree  and  disagree  with  the 
four-day  tourist,  who  sums  up  the  Chinese  convin- 
cingly, with  brutal,  practical,  skeptical  common  sense, 
and  can  echo  his  irreverent  and  wholesale  condemna- 
tion and  contempt  when  he  has  once  seen  the  land 
and  the  revolting  conditions  in  which  the  people  live. 
One  agrees  and  disagrees,  too,  with  the  sinologues, 
who  are  usually  sinophiles,  that  the  Chinese  are  the 
one  great  race  and  fine  flower  of  all  Asia,  a  superior 
people,  the  world's  greatest  and  earliest  teachers,  its 
future  leaders  and  rulers,  the  chosen  people;  China 
a  vast  reserve  reservoir  of  humanity  to  repeople  and 
revive  decadent,  dying  Europe ;  the  Chinese  destined 
tounderlive,  override,  and  outdo  all  the  pale  races ;  the 
whole  hope  of  humanity  bound  up  in  this  yellow  people. 
Everything  seems  dead,  dying,  ruined,  or  going  to 
decay  in  this  greatest  empire  of  one  race  and  people. 
There  seems  no  living  spring  nor  beating  heart  in  the 
inert  mass.  Religion,  morality,  literature,  the  arts 
and  finer  industries  are  all  at  least  comatose.  Their 
three  great  religions  are  dead  ;  two  systems  of  ignoble 
superstitions  live.  Literature  is  a  fossil  thing,  all  hol- 
low form  and  artifice,  the  empty  shell  of  dead  con- 
ventions. The  arts  have  died,  the  genius  of  the  race 
has  fled.  They  have  lost  the  powers  they  once  com- 
manded, and  have  acquired  no  new  ones.  Tliere  is 
little  joy,  light-heartedness,  or  laughter  in  the  race, 
and  their  greatest  virtue,  filial  piety,  is  demoralized, 
degraded  by  the  soulless,  craven  cult  of  ancestor- 
worship.     China  in  its  present  stage,  with  the  dcsper- 


8  CHINA:   THE   LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

ate  problems  it  presents,  is  a  melancholy  and  depressing 
place,  intensely  interesting,  full  of  "questions,"  but  not 
enjoyable  in  enjoyment's  literal  sense. 

While  India  and  Japan,  on  either  side  of  it,  overflow 
with  tourists  the  year  round,  and  railways,  hotels, 
couriers,  guides,  and  guide-books  minister  to  this  an- 
nual army,  China,  although  open  to  foreign  trade 
many  years  before  the  adjacent  islands,  lacks  all  this 
life  and  industry.  Neither  Murray  nor  Baedeker  has 
penetrated  the  empire,— they  have  no  need  to;  none 
calls  them,— and  Cook  has  only  touched  the  edge  of  it 
at  Canton.  No  pleasure-travelers  make  a  tour  of 
China,  and  the  round-the-world  tourist,  the  commonly 
and  contemptuously  termed  "globe-trotter"  of  the 
Far  East,  usually  sees  Shanghai  during  the  few  hours 
his  steamer  anchors  at  Wusuiig ;  "  does  "  Canton  as 
an  excursion  from  imperial,  model,  British  Hong- 
kong, and  vies  with  his  fellow-tourists  in  extravagant 
descriptions  of  its  general  offensiveness,  and  the  haste 
with  which  he  leaves  it. 

In  the  spring  and  autumn  there  are  a  few  tourists  in 
Peking,  but  they  are  not  a  twentieth,  not  a  fiftieth, 
of  the  travelers  who  pass  the  coasts  of  China  on  the 
grand  round  of  the  globe.  No  inducements  are 
offered,  no  jn-ovision  is  made,  for  the  tourist  in  China ; 
nothing  ministers  to,  no  one  caters  to,  his  wants  and 
needs.  Tlio  foreign  residents  in  treaty  ports  look 
coldly  and  listen  i)atiently  to  those  who  wish  to  ti-avel 
in  the  interior,  and  a  tourist's  zeal  oozes  away  in  their 
presence.  P^very  dei)arture  from  railway  or  steam- 
ship routes  is  like  a  journey  of  exploration;  })nt 
without  the  excitement,  surprises,  and  rewards  of  real 


THE  DEGENERATE  EMPIRE  9 

discovery,  one's  energy  soon  lags  in  the  opening  of 
personal  routes,  and  one  longs  to  be  on  a  beaten  track, 
to  have  a  coupon  ticket,  to  be  personally  conducted 
in  flocks.  The  hostility  of  the  people,  combined  with 
a  certain  fraternity  and  equality ;  the  close  shoulder- 
ing and  elbowing  of  the  filthy  crowds  whose  solid, 
stolid,  bovine  stare,  continued  for  hours,  unpleasantly 
mesmerizes  one ;  the  inevitable  wrangling,  haggling, 
and  bribing  before  one  can  get  in  or  out  of  any  show- 
place,  and  the  awful  Chinese  voice— in  fact,  the  whole 
scheme  and  plan  of  the  world  Chinese — wear  upon  one, 
"  get  upon  one's  nerves,"  in  a  way  and  to  a  degree 
difficult  to  explain.  Then  nothing  Chinese  seems 
worth  seeing ;  one  has  only  a  frantic,  irrational  desire 
to  get  away  from  it,  to  escape  it,  to  return  to  civili- 
zation, decency,  cleanliness,  quiet,  and  order.  The 
mere  tourist,  the  traveler  without  an  errand  or  an  ob- 
ject beyond  entertainment,  finds  that  inner  China 
does  not  entertain,  amuse,  please,  or  soothe  him 
enough  to  balance  the  discomforts.  He  soon  feels 
that  he  must  go,  and  China's  edge  is  paved  with  broken 
intentions,  travelers'  plans  and  itineraries  abandoned 
with  zeal.  He  may  be  surprised  by  many  things, 
deeply  interested,  but  admiration  is  a  reserve  senti- 
ment, not  often  called  upon  in  the  course  of  any 
tour.  "  Better  fifty  years  of  Europe  than  a  cycle  of 
Cathay  "  understates  too  eloquently. 

The  bibliography  of  China  is  so  extensive  that  it 
should  be  the  best-known  country  of  the  East.  Since 
"Marco  Polo,  Friar  Odoric,  Ibn  Batuta,  and  Rashuddin, 
a  legion  of  travelers  have  written ;  but  Marco  Polo 
and  these  others  without  Colonel  Yule  would  be  less 


10  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

known  to  the  Western  world  than  Omar  without 
Fitzgerald,  and  Colonel  Yule's  commentaries  upon 
the  Venetian  and  the  other  early  visitors  furnish  a 
small  encyclopedia  of  things  Chinese.  The  '^  Lettres 
lildifiantes  "  of  the  Jesuit  priests  and  their  memoirs 
are  a  storehouse  of  contemporary  history.  With  the 
opening  of  China,  a  little  group  of  scholarly  mis- 
sionaries began  their  literary  labors,  and  there  have 
resulted  the  standard  dictionaries  and  grammars 
and  innumerable  translations  of  the  Chinese  classics. 
Those  two  solid  volumes,  "  The  Middle  Kingdom, " 
by  the  American  scholar  and  missionary.  Dr.  Wells 
Williams,  hold  all  of  China,  and  are  the  treasury  for 
everything— history,  topography,  literature,  customs, 
philosoph}',  religion,  and  arts.  Archdeacon  Gray  has 
described  the  social  life  and  customs  of  the  Cantonese, 
and  Dr.  Doolittle  those  of  the  Fu-kien  people.  No- 
thing can  ever  displace  Dr.  Arthur  Smith's  "  Chinese 
Characteristics,"  the  keenest  and  most  appreciative 
study  of  the  Chinese  human  being  yet  made ;  and 
his  "Chinese  Village"  is  a  worthy  sequel.  Other 
Protestant  teachers  who  made  notable  contributions 
are  Edkins,  I\Iacgowan,  Parker,  Hart,  Milne,  Moule, 
Morrison,  ^Inrtin,  Williamson,  Holconibe,  and  Reid. 

Abbe  Hue  remains  first  of  all  travelers  in  this  cen- 
tury, his  narrative  being  as  vivid  and  true,  as  piquant, 
to-day  as  a  half-c^entury  ago.  After  the  abbe,  the 
])est  books  of  pure  travel,  the  most  interesting  nar- 
ratives, liave  l)een  written  by  women  — Miss  Gordon- 
Cummiiig  ;md  ]Mrs.  Bisho]). 

The  Britisli  consular  service  in  Chiiui  is  a  long  roll 
of  literarv  honor,  the  line  of  scholars  and  writers 


THE  DEGENERATE  EMPIRE  11 

beginning  with  that  most  eminent  pioneer,  Sir  Thomas 
Wade,  by  whose  method  the  sinologues  of  this  gener- 
ation acquired  the  Chinese  language.  Sir  Harry 
Parkes,  Sir  Chaloner  Alabaster,  Sir  Robert  Hart, 
Messrs.  Hosie,  Baber,  Parker,  Watters,  Margary, 
Grosvenor,  Bourne,  Douglass,  Legge,  Giles,  and  Bush- 
ell  have  worthily  continued  the  literary  traditions  of 
that  eminent  service. 

The  direct,  practical,  clear-headed,  straightforward 
account  of  China  given  by  the  American  soldier, 
General  James  H.  Wilson,  is  the  most  interesting 
book  for  the  general  reader,  and  the  best  contribu- 
tion by  any  military  man,  while  Sir  Charles  Beres- 
ford's  broadly  compiled  yellow  book  puts  commercial 
and  military  China  in  the  clearest  light.  Political 
writers— Lord  Curzon,  Henry  Norman,  Messrs.  Boul- 
ger,  Chirol,  Colquhoun,  Gorst,  Gundry,  Krausse,  and 
Morrison — have  presented  every  phase  of  each  Chi- 
nese question  as  it  rose,  while  the  reviews  and  cur- 
rent literature  teem  with  discussions  of  the  '^  open 
door"  and  the  envied  spheres. 

Chinese  art  has  been  epitomized  in  M.  Paleologue's 
admirable  handbook,  "L'Art  Cliinois."  M.  Grandi- 
dieu's  ",La  Ceramique  Chinois,"  Mr.  Hippisley's  ''Cata- 
logue of  Chinese  Porcelains"  (written  for  the  United 
States  National  Museum),  Dr.  Bushell's  superb  "  Ori- 
ental Porcelain"  (the  catalogue  of  the  collection  of 
Mr.  W.  T.  Walters  of  Baltimore,  and  a  unique  ex- 
ample of  the  art  of  book-making),  Mr.  Golland's 
''Chinese  Porcelains,"  and  Mr.  Heber  Bishop's  ex- 
haustive work  on  jade,  leave  little  to  be  said  in  the 
field  of  art. 


12  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

French,  German,  and  Russian  writers  in  lesser 
numbers  have  been  as  zealous  in  exploiting  the  long 
lived  empire,  and  each  political  crisis  brings  a  trib- 
ute of  books  in  aU  languages.  As  the  West  is  only 
now  awakening  to  Cliina,  discovering  that  unknown 
quantity,  nothing  need  be  discouraged  that  helps  on 
acquaintance  with  any  of  its  features  or  phases. 
Each  book  of  the  moment  is  an  aid  to  comprehending 
the  incomprehensible,  deciphering  the  undecipherable, 
and  working  at  the  puzzle  which  other  centuries  may 
solve. 


II 

THE  EDGE   OF   CHIHLI 

[S  one  steams  in  from  the  Yellow  Sea 
westward  across  the  Gulf  of  Pechili,the 
muddy  waters  of  the  Tientsin  or  Pei-ho 
River  come  far  out  to  meet  one,  tinging 
the  ocean  to  the  same  dingy,  yellow- 
brown  hue  as  the  shores  of  the  Great  Plain  of  China. 
Twelve  miles  offshore,  out  of  sight  of  the  low-lying 
land's  edge,  the  mud-bars  arrest  navigation,  and  at 
low  tide  are  covered  by  only  from  three  to  five  feet 
of  water.  Even  at  high  tide,  large  ships  must  lighten 
their  cargoes  at  the  outer  bar,  and  often  then  push 
their  way  and  slide  over  the  upper  inches  of  a  soft, 
sticky  ooze  that  boils  from  the  propeller-blades  like 
bubbling  mud-springs  on  a  volcano's  side. 

Ships  finally  enter  the  river's  narrow  mouth  be- 
tween the  two  Taku  forts,  solid  embankments  of  mud 
and  millot-stalks,  now  containing  superior  modern 
batteries.  It  was  off  the  mud-flats  of  the  south  fort 
that  the  British  fleet  and  troops  were  fired  on  in  June, 
1859,  the  act  which  moved  the  neutral  spectator,  the 
American    commodore    Tatnall,  to    say,    "  Blood    is 

13 


14  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

thicker  than  water,"  to  lower  his  boat  and  rescue 
those  so  perilously  placed,  and,  with  his  flag  flying, 
continue  to  tow  boat-loads  of  British  marines  into 
action.  Deep  ditches  encircle  these  strongholds  at 
the  rear,  "  to  keep  tlie  soldiers  from  straying  away," 
a  great  viceroy  explained. 

The  Tientsin  River,  as  it  is  called  for  sixty  miles 
from  the  sea  to  the  city  of  Tientsin,  is  a  tortuous 
stream  that  calls  for  a  short  ship  and  a  skilful  pilot 
to  round  its  bends  and  elbows.  Before  the  railway, 
one  had  to  endure  the  tedium  of  that  serpentine  sixty 
miles'  voyage  to  the  city,  only  twenty-five  miles  dis- 
tant in  air-line.  All  the  devices  known  to  the  navi- 
gators of  our  Upper  Missouri  were  employed,  and 
there  were  exciting  times  when  the  ship's  bow  nosed 
the  bank  and  scraped  the  friable  soil  away.  Often 
anchors  Avere  set  in  fields  and  bow  or  stern  pulled 
round  or  pulled  off,  the  anchor  tearing  up  the  earth 
and  giving  Chihli  fields  their  first  touch  of  subsoil- 
plowing.  From  high  ships'  decks  one  could  easily 
survey  intimate  village  and  farm-house  life  in  drear 
mud  hovels,  where  women  with  crippled  feet,  and 
ape-like  children  with  bare  brown  bodies  and  flying 
queues,  seem  far  away  from  and  below  any  equality 
with  other  humanity. 

Tlie  Tientsin  River  has  its  floods,  when  the  soft 
embankments  crumble  away  and  the  water  pours 
back  upon  the  low  country,  forming  shallow  lakes 
miles  in  extent,  wrecking  homes,  destroying  crops, 
and  islanding  villages  of  starving  peasants  in  the 
midst  of  their  flooded  fields.  Then  wretched  people 
wade  out  and  grub  iu  the  flood  and  wreck,  or  pole 


THE  EDGE  OF  CHIHLI  15 

boats  about  among  the  stalks  of  kao-liang,  or  giant 
millet,  seeking  to  rescue  any  ear  of  grain  or  single 
grain,  even  any  bit  of  leaf  or  stalk  that  may  feed  and 
warm  them  through  the  dread  winter.  Starvation 
awaits  a  certain  number  of  these  people  in  years  of 
flood,  and  they  accept  it  patiently  as  the  thing  always 
expected,  the  lot  of  some  body  of  toilers  somewhere 
in  China  each  year. 

The  river-bed  shallows  to  two  and  three  feet  when 
the  banks  have  been  breached  and  the  flood-waters 
have  turned  fields  to  lakes,  and  then  for  months  the 
city  of  Tientsin  is  without  steamer  communication ; 
even  tugs  and  lighters  pass  with  difficulty,  and  men-of- 
war  are  securely  impounded  at  Tientsin's  river-front. 
The  mandarins  have  still  the  most  childish  ideas  of 
engineering  works,  and  the  money  devoted  to  Chinese 
reclamation  and  repair  of  embankments  is  frittered 
away  and  stolen. 

Under  such  conditions  a  railway  from  the  sea-coast 
was  more  than  a  blessing;  but  its  first  section  was 
built  by  subterfuge,  strategy,  and  deceit,  in  the  face 
of  the  determined  opposition  of  the  Chinese  officials. 
A  little  seven-mile  tramway  connecting  the  Kaiping 
coal-mines  with  the  canal  at  the  head  of  the  Pehtang 
River,  above  the  Taku  forts,  was  gradually  converted 
into  a  real  railway ;  the  British  engineer  at  Kaiping 
built  his  first  locomotive  by  stealth ;  and,  before  the 
obstructing  officials  knew  it,  there  was  a  narrow-gage 
line,  fifty  miles  in  length,  in  actual  operation.  Diplo- 
macy was  required  to  keep  the  viceroy  in  the  path  of 
progress  after  he  had  unwittingly  arrived  there ;  but 
the  point  was  won,  and  the  railway  was  regularly 


IG  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

built  from  the  mines  to  Tongku,  on  the  river-bank, 
and  thence  to  Tientsin,  and  on  to  Peking. 

Bribes  and  authority  easily  secured  the  right  of  way 
over  graves  and  through  fields,  filial  piety  pocketing 
its  solace  or  timidly  holding  its  tongue  when  the  rail- 
way passed  over  ancestral  graves,  and  fung-sh id  ^eQing 
before  the  persuasive  dollar.  Stupid,  careless,  and  deaf 
people  were  always  being  knocked  down  and  run  over, 
—they  even  lay  down  on  the  nice,  dry  track  to  rest 
or  nap,— and  the  railway  people,  fearing  mobs  and 
opposition,  paid  for  those  lives,  but  not  at  interna- 
tional indemnity  rates.  With  such  a  means  at  hand 
of  acquiring  a  fortune  for  their  surviving  families,  the 
track  was  the  resort  of  speculative  suicides,  until  the 
railway  managers  stopped  paying  for  lives  lost,— for 
not  even  a  coal-mine  could  meet  that  steady  financial 
drain,— and  the  suicidal  mania  ceased  as  suddenly. 

In  all  travel  one  meets  nothing  like  the  railway- 
station  at  Tongku,  where  one  lands  from  the  steamer,  a 
microcosm  of  the  dirtiest,  noisiest,  and  most  hopelessly 
ill-governed  empire  on  earth.  We  have  mushroom 
towns  in  America,  hasty  and  noisome  growths  at  the 
end  of  track  and  along  the  line  of  new  railroads,  but 
nothing  can  match  the  Chinese  "mushroom "of  new 
Tongku,  slummiest  of  slums,  more  Augean  than  any- 
thing of  Augca's  could  have  been,  the  last  and  worst 
affront  to  the  eyes,  ears,  and  nose,  Chihli's  sufficient 
revenge  for  having  i)rogress  put  upon  it.  The  allies, 
in  18G0,  exhausted  two  languages  in  attempting  to 
suggest  the  filth  of  old  Tongku,  and  time  and  progress 
have  but  intensified  the  situation. 

The  words,  "  Imj)erial  Chinese  Railway,"  have  an  im- 


THE  EDGE   OF  CHIHLI  17 

posing  sound,  and  one  is  ferried  ashore  from  anchored 
ships  with  vague  expectation  of  Oriental  splendor— 
perhaps  of  yellow-bodied  coaches  and  dragon-mouthed 
smoke-stacks  on  gaudy  engines.  One  expects  a  Chi- 
nese railway  to  be  different  from  anything  else  he  has 
seen.  And  it  is.  The  landing  at  Tongku  is  an  ex- 
perience from  which  even  the  oldest  resident  in  China 
quails,  and  after  which  the  newcomer  wishes  himself 
home  again.  China  is  not  to  be  transformed  by  a  little 
thing  like  a  railway,  nor  thrown  from  the  groove  of 
ages  by  the  shriek  of  an  iron  horse.  The  iron  horse 
has  been  transformed  instead,  translated,  transliter- 
ated, Chinese- ed,  so  quickly  and  entirely  that  one 
has  to  admit  certain  indomitable  qualities  in  the  race 
that  can  put  its  mark  so  indelibly  on  the  most  alien 
thing  from  beyond  its  world.  China  is  China  to  the 
last  word,  triumphant  over  all  agents  of  progress  and 
regeneration.  The  locomotive  may  pant  and  shriek 
on  a  side-track,  but  its  noise  can  be  drowned  by  the 
ordinary  altercation  of  Tongku  coolies  when  boat- 
loads of  intending  train-passengers  approach  the  shore. 
Custom  orders  that  one  set  of  coolies  shall  take  the 
luggage  from  the  boats  to  the  bank,  and  another  set 
of  coolies  transport  it  to  the  station,  where  all  lug- 
gage is  weighed  and  charged  for,  and,  without  label 
or  check,  thrown  in  an  open  box-car,  at  the  mercy  of 
the  weather  and  the  hordes  who  crowd  into  those 
same  open  boxes  as  the  only  accommodation  provided 
for  third-class  travel. 

Tongku  station  platform  was  as  free  as  any  street 
or  highway  of  the  empire.  The  whole  mushroom  vil- 
lage swarmed  there  at  train-time,  even  criminals  in 


18  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

cangues  strolling  up  and  down  and  staring  one  out  of 
countenance,  while  hucksters  bawled  on  every  side, 
and  coolies  quarreled  with  one  another  and  elbowed 
Europeans  with  that  freedom  and  equality  that  is 
greater  among  the  greasy  and  ragged  millions  of  this 
unsavory  empire  than  in  farthest  western  America. 
A  dirty  waiting-room  received  us  when  we  had  picked 
a  way  through  the  slums  and  sewery  runs  supposed 
to  be  streets,  and  itinerant  cooks  settled  close  by 
the  door  with  their  sizzling  kettles  and  nameless 
things. 

The  long  cars,  like  the  common  day-coaches  of 
American  railways,  are  fitted  with  wooden  seats,  and 
at  each  end  closed  compartments,  or  coupes,  seclude 
Chinese  women  and  great  folks  at  an  extra  charge. 
There  are  seemingly  no  springs  under  the  body  of  the 
coach,  and  the  first-class  passenger  finds  himself 
thumped  about  like  a  load  of  freight.  Without  car- 
pet or  cushion  or  curtain,  carving,  gilding,  or  surplus 
splendors,  one  is  jolted  along  at  the  rate  of  twenty  miles 
an  hour.  There  were  curtains  and  cushions  in  the  first- 
class  cars  at  the  inauguration  of  railway  travel,  but 
the  Chinese  passengers  took  away  every  loose  thing 
when  they  left  the  cars,  even  to  the  brass  catches, 
snaps,  and  springs  of  window-fastenings.  The  vice- 
roy's private  car  was  looted  in  the  same  way  when  it 
first  went  out,  the  great  man's  servants  and  guests 
vying  with  cacli  other  in  the  sack  of  public  property. 

Tientsin  station  is  Tongku  station  ten  times  con- 
founded, and  an  entire  stranger  might  fear  for  his 
life  in  the  first  mad  onslauglit  of  the  l)aggage-coolies 
with    their    carrying-poles.      One    stands    aside  and 


TJrE  EDGE  OF  CHIHLi  Id 

watches  one's  iron-nerved  boy  deal  with  the  shrieking 
madmen,  extricate  the  small  traps  from  the  grasp  of 
unauthorized  dozens,  retrieve  the  trunks  from  the 
box-car  switched  to  a  far  side-track,  and  finally  in 
some  way  get  one  ferried  across  the  narrow  river  and 
borne  to  the  hotel  in  a  clumsy  jinrikisha.  The  im- 
pedimenta follow  slung  from  poles  between  men's 
shoulders,  a  rapid  transfer  in  which  the  heaviest  trunks 
are  handled  like  eggs,  and  nothing  is  wrecked  or  turned 
topsy-turvy— an  unexpected  mercy  and  gentleness 
after  the  riot  and  pandemonium  that  precede  it. 


Ill 


TIENTSIN 


jIENTSIN  has  now  become  but  a  way- 
station  to  the  tourist,  the  place  where 
he  gets  his  passport  and  a  native  trav- 
eling servant,  and  makes  ready  to  visit 
the  Great  Wall  and  Peking.  The  foreign 
settlement,  within  the  crenelated  mud  wall  which 
Sankolinsin  built  as  defense  against  the  allies  in  1800, 
lies  beside  the  most  populous  and  turbulent  city  of 
the  north,  and  is  alwa3's  protected  by  one  or  two 
foreign  men-of-war.  The  French  and  Japanese  keep 
gunboats  there  at  all  seasons,  and  the  British  and 
American  admirals  detail  a  ship  in  alternating  win- 
ters ;  this  detail  for  a  season  at  Tientsin  being  always 
pleasing  to  naval  men.  Shut  out  from  the  rest  of  the 
world  when  tlie  river  freezes  in  November,  all  com- 
mercial nctivity  at  an  end  until  the  ice  breaks  in 
spring,  the  nuiils  coming  by  slow  couriers  overland 
from  Shanghai  and  Cliefoo,  the  community  gives  it- 
self over  to  gaieties  of  every  kind,  with  the  diplo- 
matic colony  at  Peking  leading  the  dance  further  on. 
There  is  skating  on  the  river,  but  no  sleighing  on  that 

20 


TIENTSIN  21 

wind-swept  plain,  whose  climate  is  as  dry  and  ex- 
hilarating as  that  of  Dakota  for  nine  months  of  the 
year,  followed  by  intense  heat  and  a  short  rainy  sea- 
son of  tropical  downpours  and  saturating  dampness 
in  midsummer.  An  ice-breaker  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Pei-ho  might  keep  the  river  open,  or  steamers  could 
regularly  run  to  some  of  the  small  railroad  towns  on 
the  coast  near  the  Great  Wall;  but  others  than  the 
Chinese  grow  conservative  when  they  live  long  in  the 
land  of  the  queue. 

The  old  walled  city  of  Tientsin,  at  the  northern 
terminus  of  the  Grand  Canal,  holds  with  its  suburbs 
more  than  a  million  people,  and  stretches  along  the 
river  in  compact  mass  for  six  miles.  It  is  built  of 
gray  bricks,  has  dingy-tiled  roofs,  and,  without  space, 
splendor,  greenery,  or  cleanliness  anywhere  about  it, 
is  but  a  huge  warren  in  whose  narrow  stone  runs  un- 
ceasing processions  of  people  stream  and  scream  and 
scold  their  way  from  dawn  to  dark.  A  few  streets 
have  been  widened  or  made  passable  for  jinrikishas, 
but  blockades  are  frequent  and  to  be  remembered. 
No  stranger  doubts  the  fighting  qualities  of  the 
Chinese  after  he  has  been  a  few  times  blockaded  in  old 
Tientsin's  streets. 

The  two  great  events  of  Tientsin's  history  were 
the  war  and  the  winter  of  the  allies'  camps  (1860-Gl), 
and  the  massacre  of  1870.  The  severe  lesson  taught 
the  Chinese  in  the  allies'  war  had  not  lasted  them  ten 
years  when  popidar  anti-foreign  frenzy  turned  upon 
the  orphanage  of  the  French  Sisters  of  Charity,  and 
the  mob  massacred  twenty  foreigners,  including  the 
French  consul,  all  the  sisters,  and  two  Russians,  and 


22  CHINA:   THE  LOXG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

burned  the  cathedral  and  convent.  They  were  mov- 
ing upon  the  settlement  to  put  all  foreigners  to  death, 
when— rain  dispersed  them  !  "  I  can  hear  the  gongs 
and  the  shouts  yet,"  said  one  Tientsin  resident,  who 
as  a  child  saw  the  flames  of  the  burning  cathedral, 
and  the  bodies  of  the  murdered  nuns  floating  down 
the  river  past  the  ship  on  which  the  residents  took 
refuge  for  a  week.  A  summary  punishment,  another 
occupation  of  Peking,  some  actual  humiliation,  and  a 
visible  lesson  of  the  consequences  of  such  an  outrage 
would  have  saved  thirty  years  of  lost  time  in  China, 
but  France  was  in  the  agony  of  its  great  war.  There 
were  no  troops  to  spare,  and  home  questions  were  of 
such  import  that  things  could  not  be  managed  with 
a  free  hand  in  China.  The  so-called  degradation  of  a 
few  officials,  the  execution  of  twenty  alleged  ring- 
leaders of  the  riot,  the  payment  of  an  indemnity,  and 
the  despatch  of  an  embassy  of  apology  to  Paris,  were 
the  only  results.  Since  that  unhappy  summer,  Tien- 
tsin has  never  been  left  without  its  foreign  gunboats, 
and  Li  Hung  Chang,  who  was  made  viceroy  of  Chihli 
after  the  massacre,  took  up  his  residence  in  the  di- 
lapidated-looking yamun  by  the  river-bank,  and  for 
twenty  years  was  the  real  ruler  of  China  as  regards 
its  foreign  policy.  The  war  with  Japan  brought  his 
downfall,  and  the  unique  power  he  had  exercised  no 
longer  appertains  to  the  Chihli  viceroyalty. 

There  was  a  court  in  miniature  there  then,  with  all 
its  cliques,  cabals,  and  factions,  and  intrigues  were  rife 
about  the  viceroy's  shabby  yamun.  In  1887  Tien- 
tsin swarmed  with  concessionaries  of  all  nations, 
seeking  to  build  railways,  to  establish  banks  and  tele- 


TIENTSIN  23 

phones,  to  wake  up  China  and  start  her  in  the  ways 
of  progress.  British,  French,  Belgian,  German,  and 
American  agents  vied  with  one  another  for  the  vice- 
roy's favor.  The  clever  Frenchmen  laid  a  miniature 
track  and  ran  a  miniature  engine  and  cars  in  the 
palace  grounds  at  Peking  for  the  amusement  of  the 
Empress  Dowager  and  the  boy  Emperor ;  and  others 
sent  gilded  steam-launches  as  playthings  for  the  pal- 
ace folk.  Every  night  was  gay  with  great  dinners  at 
the  foreign  hotel  on  the  river-bank  at  Tientsin,  and 
mandarin  minions  from  the  viceroy's  yamun  rode  to 
and  fro  in  sedan-chairs,  and  made  the  garden  and 
river-bank  gay  with  the  lanterns  of  their  rank.  The 
great  concession  went  to  an  American  syndicate  that 
year,  and  then  all  the  disappointed  ones  and  the 
British  press  in  China  united  in  one  long  howl  and  a 
chorus  of  abuse  of  Li  Hung  Chang,  whom  they  called 
a  traitor  and  another  khedive  about  to  ruin  his  coun- 
try and  hand  it  over  to  a  foreign  despotism.  They 
prophesied  the  dissolution  of  China  if  the  railways 
were  built  and  banks  established  with  the  surplus 
silver  capital  then  weighing  down  America.  The 
American  press  unexpectedly  and  unpatriotic  ally  took 
up  the  refrain  and  turned  upon  the  American  conces- 
sionaries. Instead  of  rejoicing  in  the  victory  over 
the  rivals  of  all  nations,  the  yellow  journals  berated 
all  the  Americans  concerned,  until  Chinese  suspicions 
were  aroused  and  progress  was  held  back  another 
ten  years. 

Ten  years  later  the  concession-seekers  were  as 
many,  but  the  bubble  of  China's  reputation  had  been 
pricked  by  the  war  with  Japan,  and  Li  Hung  Chang, 


24  CHINA:   THE   LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

disgraced  and  deposed  from  power,  was  wandering 
about  Europe  at  the  behest  of  the  great  Manchus,  who 
would  not  tolerate  him  at  Peking.  These  greedy 
officials,  furious  at  the  profits  that  foreign  intercourse 
and  concession-seeking  had  unexpectedly  and  unsus- 
pectedly  poured  into  the  Tientsin  yamun,  liad  vested 
the  consideration  of  railway  measures  and  all  conces- 
sions in  an  omnivorous  board  at  Peking,  and  con- 
cession-seeking was  a  more  expensive,  a  more  cautious, 
concealed,  and  strategic  game  than  before ;  and  over 
all  was  the  dread  shadow  of  Russia.  With  the  cus- 
toms revenues  pledged  for  decades  to  come  to  pay 
the  war  indemnity  loans,  one  certain  source  of  income 
was  gone,  and  the  imperial  hand  fell  so  heavily  on 
provincial  officials  that  no  money  was  left  to  spend 
on  government  railway  extension.  Chinese  capital 
would  not  respond  to  Chinese  government  a])peals  to 
subscribe,  and  it  became  apparent  that  only  foreign 
capital  would  ever  build  railways  in  China.  One 
progressive  Chinese  official  even  said  in  his  desi)air: 
"Oh,  why  did  not  the  English  keep  the  country 
when  they  were  at  Peking  in  IBGOf  Then  we  should 
have  had  progress  in  an  honest  and  rational  way. 
Now  we  have  been  delivered  over,  sold  to  the  Rus- 
sians, and  all  Europe  will  devour  us  piecemeal.  Our 
end  has  come." 

Tientsin's  siglits  and  shops  are  few  and  small  com- 
pared with  Peking's,  and  its  specialties  are  not  many. 
Its  position  at  the  liead  of  the  Grand  Canal  made  it 
f()r  centuries  the  great  market  and  exchange  where 
the  Mongol  h()rse-])reeders  and  tlie  camel-trains  from 
the  nortli  brought  their  products  to  barter  for  tho.se 


TIENTSIN  25 

of  the  south.  All  the  tribute  rice  from  the  southern 
provinces  once  passed  in  endless  lines  of  red  junks 
up  the  canal  and  the  river  to  the  imperial  granaries 
beside  the  walls  of  Peking ;  but  that  tribute  has  been 
nearly  all  compounded  now,  and  with  the  silting  up 
of  the  Grand  Canal  and  its  invasion  by  the  floods  of 
the  Yellow  River  the  great  traffic  from  the  south  has 
been  diverted  to  coasting  steamships.  It  carries  one 
back  and  away  from  the  modern  world  to  meet  the 
caravans  that  still  come  to  Tientsin,  bringing  wool, 
hides,  grease,  and  furs  from  Mongolia,  the  soft-footed, 
shaggy  camels  of  Central  Asia  treading  and  swaying 
in  single  file  beside  the  telegraph  and  the  railway- 
track.  The  great  tea-caravans  start  from  the  river- 
bank,  each  camel  loaded  with  baskets  of  brick-tea, 
and  his  slow  tread  rivals  the  pace  of  the  coolies  of  the 
cargo-boats,  who  haul  brick-tea  up  the  river  to  Tung- 
chow,  where  the  baskets  are  loaded  on  camels  for 
their  slow  transit  to  the  heart  of  the  vast  coutiuent. 
The  great  shag  of  the  camel's  wool  is  shed  and 
clipped  in  the  scorching  summers,  and  many  weavers 
supply  the  so-called  Tientsin  rugs  for  all  Cliina  and  the 
Far  East.  Until  recent  years  they  wove  a  close,  firm, 
hard  carpet,  with  a  long,  thick  nap,  using  the  wool  in 
the  natural  brown  color,  with  two  blues  and  a  black  in 
good  old  Chinese  geometric  and  conventional  designs. 
The  corrupting  touch  of  foreign  trade  has  given  tlie 
weavers  the  cabbage-rose  and  the  picture  pattern,  lent 
them  solferino  and  all  the  aniline  colors,  and  led  them 
to  produce  coarse,  thin,  loosel}''  woven  carpets  that 
wear  flat  in  a  few  months  and  may  l)e  punctured  at 
the  first  beating.     The  carael's-hair  rug  retains  for 


26  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

months  the  awful  caravan  odor,  overpowering  in  damp 
weather,  but  a  good  airing  in  sun  or  frosty  air  will 
dissipate  it.  From  eighteen  cents  a  square  foot  for  a 
good,  thick,  closely  woven  rug  of  the  old  order,  the 
price  trebled  in  ten  years ;  yet  buyers  are  ten  times  as 
many  as  they  were  before,  and  one  dreads  to  think 
what  the  Tientsin  rug  may  become  in  another  decade. 
The  ^'Tientsin  date,"  the  fruit  of  the  jujube-tree  pre- 
served in  honey,  is  another  specialt}^,  but  of  Mongol 
origin  or  adaptation.  The  Tientsin  figurines  are  as 
pleasing  in  their  way  as  those  of  Tanagra,  and  as 
faithfully  represent  the  people  as  they  are  to-day  and 
have  been,  together  with  the  chief  figures  of  history 
and  legend.  The  humble  modelers  in  clay  are  found 
deep  in  the  burrows  of  the  walled  city,  and  their 
shelves  show  all  the  types  and  costumes,  all  the  classes, 
callings,  and  occupations  of  the  empire.  One  cannot 
buy  modern  portraits  yet,  and  the  wizened  old  artist 
of  the  inspired  thumb  looked  blank  when  I  insisted 
upon  having  him  make  me  Li  Hung  Chang,  bullet- 
mark,  peacock  feather,  yellow  jacket,  and  all.  The 
figures  are  so  cleverly  done,  so  expressive,  often  so 
humorous,  that  one  buys  recklessly  at  a  few  cents 
apiece— to  bestow  them  all  upon  the  ''  boy"  in  the  end, 
since  these  solid  lumps  of  dried  mud  are  heavy  and 
easily  broken,  stream  with  moisture,  and  even  resolve 
themseh  es  into  shapeless  clay  again  in  exceptionally 
damp  seasons. 

There  are  many  grimy  temples  and  a  Moliamme- 
dan  mosque  in  the  city ;  streets  of  silk-  and  fur-  and 
sweetmeat-sliops,  and  a  few  curio-sliops,  wliere  the 
overflow  and  the  suspicious  pieces  from  Peking  shops 


TIENTSIN  27 

are  vended,  Peking  palace  and  yamiin  thieves  make 
Tientsin  their  "  fence,"  and  strangers  about  to  leave 
by  the  first  steamer  sometimes  find  fate  flying  in  their 
faces  with  the  offer  of  treasures  that  resident  collec- 
tors seek  in  vain. 

A  specialty  of  the  place,  known  best  to  the  Ameri- 
can navy,  is  the  blood-curdling  tale  of  the  "  Tientsin 
ghost."  Every  ward-room  has  heard  it,  until  officers 
know  it  by  heart;  cadets  learn  it  at  the  Annapolis 
Academy,  and  when,  as  officers,  they  come  to  Tien- 
tsin on  a  first  Eastern  cruise,  immediately  want  to 
see  the  house  where  it  happened.  The  very  oldest 
foreign  inhabitants  of  the  place  told  me  they  had 
never  heard  of  any  such  spook,  and  the  new  American 
consul  had  been  told  it  once, — somewhere,  awhile 
ago, — but  did  not  really  remember.  Naval  officers  of 
literary  bent  have  put  it  in  print  in  American  news- 
papers, each  giving  it  a  new  turn  or  detail,  and  each 
promptly  taken  to  task  for  not  telling  it  "as  I  first 
heard  it  on  the  Tennessee,"  the  Oneida,  or  the  Ashuelot, 
men-of-war  of  ancient  and  shipwrecked  memory.  In  its 
simplest  form  the  story  of  the  Tientsin  ghost  records 
that  one  autumn  a  newly  arrived  American  consul 
found  that  the  only  house  for  rent  in  the  settlement 
was  a  haunted  one,  which  had  been  untenanted  for 
some  seasons.  The  younger  officers  of  the  American 
gunboat  wintering  at  Tientsin  promised  to  lay  the 
ghost  for  him  at  once  and  for  all.  A  supper  was 
served  late  that  night  in  the  dining-room,  and  at  mid- 
iiigl]t  the  toast-master  rose,  lifted  his  revolver  over- 
head, and  holding  his  glass  in  the  other  hand,  said  : 
'^  Here  's  to  the  ghost !  "    At  the  instant,  shriek  after 


28  CHINA:   THE  LONG-Lm:D  EMPIRE 

shriek,  the  scuffle  of  feet  up  above  and  continuing 
down  the  stairway  to  the  very  door,  paralyzed  the 
armed  company.  As  the  first  man  sprang  into  the 
hall,  the  wind  from  an  open  garden  door  extinguished 
the  candles  on  the  supper-table,  and  groping  forward, 
he  fell  over  a  prostrate  body,  and  his  fingers  slipped  in 
warm  blood.  Lights  were  struck,  and  at  the  foot  of  the 
stair  lay  the  body  of  a  brother  officer,  who,  listening 
to  all  the  ward -room  bravado  and  talk,  had  concealed 
himself  in  the  upper  part  of  the  house  beforehand  to 
surprise  them.  He  had  been  surprised  himself  by  a 
gang  of  Chinese  thieves  that  used  the  house  for  a  hid- 
ing-place, and  was  hacked  to  pieces  by  them  as  he  fled 
down  the  staircase. 

And  the  most  elderly  resident  had  heart  not  only 
to  deny  the  whole  time-honored,  standard,  ward-room 
and  academy  classic,  but  to  go  into  details  of  expo- 
sition and  rational  arguments,  to  suggest  examining 
consular-court  records,  naval  log-books,  and  archives, 
and  to  support  with  Scotch  firmness  his  own  imme- 
diate verdict  of  "  Bosh  !  " 

Tientsin's  gay  social  life  is  by  no  means  limited  to 
the  winter  season,  while  the  river  is  closed  and  the  two 
or  three  guTiboats  add  their  quota  to  pleasure-loving 
circles.  It  has  the  sjunng  and  autumn  races,  when 
tlie  Mongolian  ])onies  win  cups,  and  pools  sold  after 
the  most  elaborate  European  racing  fashions  make 
and  break  investors.  It  has  its  public  park,  where 
whole  dinner-companies  repair  on  summer  evenings, 
their  coffee  following,  while  they  listen  to  concerts  by 
the  viceroy's  band,  which,  first  instituted  by  Li  Hung 
Chang  under  a  iNIanila  band-master,  has  attained  cred- 


TIENTSIN  29 

itable  proficiency.  That  great  viceroy  is  also  remem- 
bered by  the  community  as  the  donor  of  a  dozen  or 
more  pairs  of  enormous  embroidered  curtains  for  the 
Gordon  Hall,  where  the  gay  community  dances  its 
winters  away,  holds  banquets,  meetings,  and  theatri- 
cals—the same  enormous,  bordered  curtains,  with 
maxims  or  symbolic  figures  embroidered  on  red 
grounds,  which  Chinese  princes  and  great  ones  hang 
in  their  halls  on  festivals  and  holidays.  An  excellent 
public  library  is  housed  in  the  same  fine  town  hall, 
and  the  books  on  the  shelves  attest  the  tastes  and 
culture  of  the  community. 


IV 

SHANHAIKWAN 

^T  is  only  eight  hours  by  train  from  Tien- 
tsin down  to  and  along  the  shore  of  the 
sea  to  Shanhaikwan,  the  most  pictur- 
esque of  the  many  walled  towns  on  the 
Chihli  coast,  and  where  the  Great  Wall  of 
China  dips  down  to  the  sea.  After  leaving  the  Taku 
mud-flats  and  those  salt-marshes  where  the  allies 
fought  and  floundered  in  1860,  one  follows  a  narrow, 
fertile  plain  between  the  mountains  and  the  sea,  which, 
in  mid-September  stacked  over  with  millet,  only 
needed  ripening  pumpkins  to  complete  an  American 
autumn  picture.  Harvest  groups  were  at  work  in 
every  field,  and  clumsy  little  wooden-wheeled  carts 
were  being  drawn  by  ponies  toward  villages  with 
whitewashed  walls.  Tall  and  short  millet,  ])uck wheat, 
dwarf  cotton,  and  sweet-potato  patches  were  yielding 
their  abundance  all  the  way  to  the  edge  of  ^lanchuria, 
a  land  of  plenty,  in  strong  contrast  to  the  drowned 
and  muddy  fields,  the  flooded  villages,  and  the  starving 
people  back  by  the  Tientsin's  banks.  The  kao-liang, 
or  giant  millet,  is  nearly  our  sorghum,  and  it  j'ields 

■M 


SHANHAIKWAN  31 

a  rich  syrup,  a  coarse  sugar,  and  a  distilled  drink. 
The  stalks  are  fodder  and  fuel  and  building-material, 
and  the  grain  is  the  chief  food  of  the  people.  At 
each  station,  venders  of  grapes,  apples,  white  pears, 
and  chestnuts  besieged  the  train.  The  fruits  lack  in 
flavor,  but  the  big,  round  red  grapes  are  peculiar  to 
Chihli,  and  are  kept  by  skilful  farmers  in  stone  jars 
through  the  winter,  as  well  as  the  long  white  "finger- 
grapes,"  which  are  pictures  of  beauty.  My  "boy" 
Chung,  aged  about  forty,  and  engaged  because  of  a 
strong  Sioux  countenance  and  a  harsh  voice,  with 
which  he  could  outbellow  the  others  of  Bashan,  ate 
of  all  these  fruits  continuously,  and  of  melon-seeds, 
peanuts,  dumplings,  dough-balls,  and  varnished  lumps 
besides.  But  when  ten  cooked  pears  may  be  bought 
for  six  cash,  the  head  of  a  family  may  eat  heartily 
even  on  wages  of  seventy-five  Mexican  cents  a 
day,  and  have  blue  brocade  coats  and  mulberry  satin 
trousers  for  common  wear. 

The  women,  children,  and  maid-servants  of  some 
provincial  grandees  were  hurried  into  the  little  boxes 
of  coupes  in  the  first-class  car,  and  the  doors  quickly 
shut  upon  their  rainbow  garments,  gorgeously  dressed 
heads,  and  painted  faces.  The  masters  and  their  upper 
underlings  sprawled  at  ease  on  the  seats  in  the  main 
body  of  the  car,  doubled  their  bodies  in  remarkable 
fashion,  and  let  their  feet  climb  the  window-frames. 
Pipes  bubbled  and  smoked  all  day  long,  and  the  harsh 
throat-tones  of  these  northern  people  grated  steadily 
on  the  ear  above  the  roar  of  the  trucks.  Servants 
with  second-class  tickets  rode  with  us  and  chummed 
with  mandarins,  and  half  of  the  passengers  hung  their 


32  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

uncovered  heads  out  of  the  windows,  indifferent  to 
the  hot  sun,  the  smoke,  or  cinders,  A  Russian  mis- 
sionary priest  distributed  tracts  in  Chinese,  and  told 
me  the  people  were  much  more  tolerant,  chastened, 
and  subdued  since  the  war,  and  that  in  time  the  or- 
thodox faith  Avould  do  much  with  them,  A  telegraph 
operator,  a  young  Chinese  graduated  from  Victoria 
College  at  Hongkong,  who  spoke  perfect  English, 
was  on  his  way  to  a  new  station  on  the  Manchurian 
line,  and  he  viewed  his  prospects  as  a  young  New- 
Yorker  would  have  viewed  a  sojourn  in  the  buffalo 
country  in  the  far  West  before  the  Pacific  railways 
were  built. 

In  the  open  box-car  ahead  of  us,  cattle,  sheep,  and 
pigs,  men,  women,  and  children,  and  finally  a  dozen 
hooded  hunting-eagles,  all  traveled  comfortably  to- 
gether. The  eagles  were  broad-winged,  powerful 
birds,  fastened  by  their  feet  to  the  ends  of  caiTying- 
j)oles,  and  were  borne,  flapping  their  pinions  nobly,  as 
if  in  triumphal  procession,  by  the  hunters,  who  were 
taking  them  into  Manchuria  for  hare  and  pheasant. 
When  the  magnificent  birds  of  prey  were  once  in  the 
box-car  and  released,  they  settled  down  in  baskets  like 
brooding  hens. 

At  Tongshan  and  Kaiping  between  three  and  four 
thousand  people  are  employed  in  the  coal-mines  and 
the  railway  works,  directed  by  a  half-dozen  European 
engineers,  virtually  ruling  a  model,  whitewashed, 
sanitary  town.  Distant  blue  mountains  show  there; 
the  hills  begin,  and,  running  parallel  with  the  sea, 
never  more  than  five  miles  from  it,  soon  rise  and 
merge  into  the  steep,  bare,  sharply  cut   mountain- 


SHANHAIKWAN  35 

range,  with  exactly  the  crags  and  peaks  of  ideal 
Chinese  landscapes.  White  walls  of  temples  and 
monasteries  shine  on  every  steep  slope,  the  groves 
surrounding  them  the  only  signs  of  forests  in  all  the 
region.  Two  or  three  towns  of  this  sea-shore  plain 
are  most  picturesquely  walled,  long  lines  of  battle- 
ments broken  by  gabled  gate-towers  and  pavilions, 
with  pagodas  placed  so  as  to  invoke  a  good  fung-shui, 
the  favorable  influences  of  earth  and  air. 

At  Peitaho,  the  foreign  residents  of  Peking  and 
Tientsin  have  summer  homes,  the  fresh,  clear  air 
and  the  sea-bathing  attracting  an  increasing  colony 
each  year.  There  the  plain  narrows  between  the 
mountain  and  the  sea,  and  several  lines  of  battle- 
mented  walls  show  on  the  spurs  and  summits  of  the 
range.  Soon  one  really  sees  that  world's  greatest 
wonder,  the  Great  Wall  of  China,  curving  over,  across, 
and  down  a  steep  mountain-slope,  and  squarely  bar- 
ring one's  advance. 

Shanhaikwan  lies  half-way  between  the  mountains 
and  the  sea,  and  so  close  by  the  Great  Wall  that  its 
own  city  walls  are  built  in  with  and  joined  to  the 
greater  line  of  masonry  that  extends  from  the  shores 
of  the  sea  for  more  than  a  thousand  miles  to  the 
great  desert  and  the  Kan-su  Mountains.  The  wall 
succeeded  prehistoric  stockades,  and  defended  China 
proper  from  the  wild  Mongolia  and  Manchuria,  from 
which  its  conquerors  and  rulers  have  many  times  come. 
It  is  so  picturesque,  with  its  many  bastions  and  tow- 
ers, so  imposing,  so  massive,  so  seemingly  endless  as 
it  crosses  the  plain  and  winds  up,  as  if  for  picturesque- 
ness'  sake  only,  to  the  crest  of  the  mountain-range, 


36  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

that  it  needs  not  imagination  nor  lifelong  acquain- 
tance with  it  as  a  fact  to  have  it  exercise  a  strong 
fascination  at  sight  —  the  most  stupendous  work  that 
the  hand  of  man  has  ever  builded,  an  existing,  still 
serviceable  structure  that  can  maintain  its  pretensions 
in  part  with  the  ruins  of  Egypt  and  Assyria. 

And  it  looks  exactly  like  its  pictures  in  school  geog- 
raphies !  One  had  half  expected  that  it  would  not, 
coidd  not,  be  so  irrationally,  impractically  picturesque, 
so  uselessly  solid  and  stupendous;  but  Shi-Hwang-Ti, 
first  Emperor  of  united  China,  builded  better  than  he 
knew,  and  all  this  modern  world  must  thank  him  for 
that  enduring  monument.  One  does  not  really  care 
whether  it  is  two  thousand  and  one  hundred  and  some 
years  old  or  not;  whether  it  is  twelve  hundred  or 
fifteen  hundred  miles  long,  from  twenty-five  to  sixty 
feet  high,  and  twenty- five  feet  thick,  with  a  broad 
terre-plein  between  parapets,  along  which  one  can 
walk  from  the  Gulf  of  Pechili  to  the  desert  beyond 
Kan-su,  from  the  Yellow  Sea  to  the  Sea  of  Sand ;  or  if 
millions  of  men  toiled  for  ten  years  to  complete  it, 
and  a  half-million  builders  died ;  or  if  government 
contractors  and  engineers  "scamped"  in  211  B.C.,  as 
they  do  now,  and  left  great  gaps  in  backwoods  places 
where  earthworks  did  as  well  as  solid  wall.  Wan-li 
Chang  Ching,  the  "  Ten  Thousand  Li  Wall,"  or  Chang 
Tang,  the  "  Great  Wall,"  is  too  supremely  satisfactory 
and  eye-delighting  as  an  artistic  feature  of  the  land- 
scape, as  it  winds  and  rambles  in  its  useless  way  over 
the  hilltops  and  far  away,  for  one  to  s})lit  dates  and 
details  and  to  become  precisely  archaeological.  It  is 
one  of  the  few  great  sights  of  the  world  that  is  not 


SHANHAIKWAN  37 

disappointing.  It  grows  upon  one  hour  by  hour,  and 
from  the  incredible  it  becomes  credible.  Its  solidity 
and  deserted  uselessness  uplift  it,  put  it  forever  Iwrs 
coneotirs,  and  give  it  an  atmosphere,  a  unique  dignity, 
like  only  to  the  Pyramids.  One  turns  to  those  loop- 
ing lines  of  bastioned  wall  with  increasing  sentiment 
as  long  as  one  remains  within  sight  of  it,  and  it 
arouses  feeling  and  evokes  ideas  as  only  the  great 
objects  of  nature  can  do. 

The  engine  stopped  at  the  station  outside  of  Shan- 
haikwau,  the  official  "rail-head"  or  end  of  track  at  that 
time,  and  a  half-mile  beyond  the  Great  Wall  barred 
the  way,  save  for  one  narrow  gap  through  which  the 
shining  steel  rails  stretched  away  into  Manchuria. 
It  was  almost  sunset,  the  old  pile  glowing  in  golden 
light,  and,  like  a  lodestone,  it  drew  us  straight  toward 
it,  following  the  hunters  who  shouldered  their  eagles 
and  walked  up  the  track  toward  Manchuria.  Con- 
tinued floods  made  the  breach  in  the  wall  centuries 
before  the  railway  was  dreamed  of,  or  locomotives 
might  never  have  passed  from  Chihli  into  Shiiig-king. 
When  fortifications  were  hastily  thrown  up  at  the  sea- 
front  at  the  time  of  the  Japanese  war,  no  attempt  was 
made  to  repair  this  flood-gap.  The  topsy-turvy  of 
Chinese  military  logic  argued  that  the  Japanese  would 
only  land  on  the  beach  in  front  of  the  forts,  of  course. 

On  the  Manchurian  side,  the  Great  Wall  presents  a 
bold  face  of  gray  brick  and  stone,  with  towers  and 
projecting  bastions,  a  formidable  defense  against  the 
hordes  of  wild  horsemen  in  the  days  of  crossbow 
warfare.  On  the  inner,  Chinese  side,  the  wall  is  a 
sloping  earth  embankment,  stone  and  brick  facings 


38  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

and  cross-walls  cropping  out  here  and  there.  It  has 
evidently  been  a  builders'  quarry  for  all  the  Shanhai- 
kwau  plain,  and  there  are  still  bricks  to  spare  by 
millions,  from  ^remnants  of  walls  that  run  here  and 
there  in  aimless  way  on  the  inner  side.  WaU-build- 
ing  must  have  been  a  habit  or  mania  with  these  peo- 
ple in  those  early  days,  and  they  built  walls  when 
there  was  nothing  else  to  do,  to  pass  the  time,  to  keep 
the  people  out  of  mischief.  Weeds  and  brambles 
conceal  the  flagging  of  the  terre-plein,  parapets  are 
gone,  and  many  watch-towers  have  fallen,  but  a  few 
towers  are  occupied  by  poor  tillers  of  the  soil  and 
their  swarming  families.  One  may  look  far  into 
Manchuria,  the  land  of  nomad  Tatars,  but  he  sees  no 
flocks  nor  herds  nor  conical  tents  on  grassy  plains— 
only  the  same  cultivated  fields  of  millet,  lines  of  trees, 
and  villages  of  white  houses  in  Shing-king  province  as 
in  Chihli. 

The  mandarin  director  of  railways,  who  proved  his 
fitness  for  that  practical  post  by  passing  an  exami- 
nation in  classic  literature,  and  who  had  never  seen  a 
railway  until  he  became  arbiter  of  this  end  of  China's 
first  line,  occupied  a  large  new  yamun  beside  the  sta- 
tion. In  a  far  corner  of  the  }'amun,  two  courts  of 
guest-rooms,  with  kitchens  and  servants'  quarters, 
were  reserved  for  European  ti'avelers'  use  at  a  nominal 
charge,  the  (JaTx-hun<ihl  of  India  repeated.  The  rooms 
were  clean  but  bare,  a  wirc-mattressed  bed,  chairs, 
tables,  and  a  washstand  being  all  that  were  supplied, 
since  the  traveler  in  North  China  always  carries  his 
bedding  and  full  eani])-chest  as  nei^essary  ('(juipment. 
From  the  yamun  we  could  see  Chang  Tang  posing 


SHANHAIKWAN  39 

ghostly  on  the  mountain-side  in  the  flood  of  the  full 
moon's  light,  and  at  sunrise  watch  the  rose-tinted, 
curving,  battlemented  line  cast  intense  blue  shadows 
over  the  rugged  mountain  front— exquisite  pictui*es 
of  ineffaceable  distinctness  in  memory  yet. 

At  Shanhaikwan  the  real  mule-cart  of  North  China 
jolts  one  over  real  Chinese  roads,  the  huge,  nail- 
studded  wheels,  on  axles  the  size  of  kegs,  thumping 
on  unseen  stones  in  the  deep  ruts  worn  by  all  preced- 
ing carts— the  carter  and  his  walking  partner,  the  mule, 
alike  tenacious  of  custom,  plodding  in  others'  ruts  and 
footsteps,  and  never  once  turning  to  new  ground.  It 
is  a  breath-taking,  liver-accelerating  ride  of  two  miles 
over  a  tree-shaded  road  to  the  sea-shore,  past  fields 
dotted  with  picturesque  ancestral  graves,  turtle-borne 
stone  tablets,  stone  altars  and  benches.  There  are 
three  fine  old  temples  facing  the  sea  just  within  the 
great  barrier  wall,  and  that  to  Kwanyin,  Goddess  of 
Mercy  or  Queen  of  Heaven,  nearest  the  town,  is  in  the 
best  condition,  its  courtyards,  pavilions,  and  guest- 
rooms spotlessly  clean,  the  images  brightly  shining, 
and  the  altar  ornaments  in  order. 

"Who  is  this?"  I  asked  my  hard-featured,  mixed- 
Manchu  servant,  who  had  been  often  to  Shanhai- 
kwan, and  claimed  to  know  all  about  everything  in 
North  China. 

"  China  woman,"  he  answered,  gazing  stupidly  at 
the  gilded  Queen  of  Heaven,  Buddhist  Goddess  of 
the  Sea. 

"  Why  is  she  here  in  a  temple  ? " 

"  China  woman,  China  woman.  But  dis  China 
woman  no  eat  meat,"  he  added  triumphantly. 


40  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

The  cart-tracks  wind  aimlessly  over  the  pine  bar- 
rens and  sandy  flats  by  the  sea's  edge  for  a  half-mile 
to  another  temple  inclosure,  where  walls  and  gates 
are  crumbling  and  broken,  bell-towers  dropping  to 
decay,  and  altars  deserted.  The  few  poverty-stricken 
priests,  drying  their  grain,  their  onions  and  red  pep- 
pers on  temple  terraces  and  platforms,  have  parted 
with  every  portable  treasure,  and  only  the  largest 
images  remain  to  them.  A  half-mile  farther  up  the 
beach  a  third  temple  is  in  still  more  ruinous  condition, 
the  wreck  of  its  once  splendid  buildings  a  sad  reminder 
of  those  older  times  when  Buddhism  was  a  living 
religion,  and  China  had  not  been  arrested  in  its  civ- 
ilization, nor  begun  to  retrograde.  All  the  smaller 
images  and  belongings  have  been  sold  by  stealth  to 
the  tourists  whom  the  railway  has  brought  to  Shan- 
haikwan,  and  the  gods  of  these  sea-shore  shrines  now 
sit  and  smile  serenely  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of 
Art  in  New  York,  and  the  few  priests  till  salty  fields 
behind  the  temple  and  lead  lives  of  enforced  absti- 
nence, whether  with  or  without  praj'cr. 

The  Wall  of  Ten  Thousand  Li  once  dipped  down  to 
the  very  edge  of  the  sea  and  ended  in  a  great  wave- 
defying  bastion  tower,  founded  on  the  reef  that 
here  makes  out  from  shore.  The  storms  of  two  thou- 
sand years  breached  and  battered  away  the  seaward 
tower,  and  only  crumbling  fragments  of  the  wall  now 
touch  the  water.  Just  before  the  Japanese  war  the 
old  forts  on  the  high  bank  were  hastily  rebuilt  and 
mud  walls  of  new  forts  set  up.  The  line  of  the  ori- 
ginal masonry  is  almost  lost  in  these  recent  fortifica- 
tions, but  there  are  enough  ancient  outcroppiugs  on 


SHANHAIKWAN  43 

the  beach  to  supply  tourists  with  the  ponderous  Great 
Wall  bricks  for  years  to  come.  "  The  foreigners  have 
taken  all  the  images  from  the  temples,  and  now  they 
are  trying  to  carry  away  all  the  bricks  in  the  Chang 
Tang,"  one  native  told  another, 

"  That  is  not  Great  Wall,"  said  my  blockhead  boy, 
looking  up  from  the  beach  to  the  mud  fort  stuck  like 
a  hornet's  or  a  mud-swallow's  nest  to  the  side  of  the 
ancient  pile.  "  That  is  mandarin's  house  for  shooting 
Kapanese." 

"  Where  is  the  Great  Wall,  then  ? " 

"  Back  there  on  that  mountain.  This  used  to  be 
Great  Wall,  but  now  it  is  general's  yamun  for  shooting 
the  Kapanese." 

"  How  many  Japanese  did  they  shoot  ? " 

''  Oh,  when  Kapanese  find  out,  they  lun  away ; 
never  come  this  side." 

General  Grant  came  from  Tientsin  in  a  man-of- 
war  which  anchored  off  the  wall,  and,  landing  him, 
gave  the  great  soldier  opportunity  to  examine  and  to 
follow  this  greatest  defensive  work  in  the  world— 
greatly  impressed  by  the  senseless  sacrifice  of  human 
toil  on  such  a  feat  of  military  engineering.  Japanese 
surveyors  in  disguise  swarmed  this  region  long  before 
the  war,  and  when  hostilities  broke  out,  the  military 
authorities  at  Tokio  had  detailed  maps  of  every  foot 
of  the  Great  Wall,  and  of  every  dike  and  path  in  the 
fields,  every  village  street  and  walled  inclosure  for  the 
two  hundred  miles  between  Shanhaikwan  and  Peking. 
Twenty  thousand  soldiers  were  already  on  transports 
at  Port  Arthur,  ready  to  land  here,  seize  the  railway, 
attack  the  Taku  forts  from  the  rear,  while  the  fleet 


44  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

bombarded  at  long  range,  and  march  victorious  on  to 
Peking;  but  the  pleadings  of  the  cowardly  court  at 
Peking  were  heard,  and  the  war  ended. 

The  military  mandarin,  who  so  hastily  built  these 
sea-shore  forts,  completed  them  in  thorough  manner 
after  the  war,  mounted  larger  and  better  guns,  and 
connected  them  by  carriage-roads  equal  to  those  of 
any  foreign  concession  in  China,  thus  proving  that 
roads  can  be  built  by  the  Chinese  in  rural  China, 
Once  at  the  limits  of  the  military  reservation,  how- 
ever, one's  cart-wheels  drop  into  the  old  Chinese  ruts 
that  pass  for  roads,  and  one  is  jolted  and  pounded  as 
usual. 

While  we  rode  over  these  smooth  fort  roads,  a 
frowzy  old  farmer  in  patched  clothes  came  across  the 
fields,  leading  a  donkey  by  a  halter,  and  astride  of 
the  donkey  there  was  a  most  wonderfully  painted  and 
powdered  little  girl,  in  a  red  petticoat  and  purple 
jacket,  ^vitll  ahead-load  of  tinsel  and  artificial  flowers. 
My  zeal  to  see  and  to  snap  a  photograph  of  the  strange 
trio  was  checked  by  the  boy,  who,  in  half -frightened 
tones,  implored  :  "  No,  no,  no  !  That  is  leading  home 
new  wife.  S'pose  that  man  see  you  look  wife,  he  make 
great  bobbery";  and  the  lonely,  joyless  wedding-pro- 
cession plodded  on  across  the  field.  The  old  farmer 
had  gone  to  market  and  bought  himself  a  wife,  and 
was  leading  her  home  by  a  halter,  quite  as  much  as  if 
she  had  been  a  calf  or  a  dog. 

Shanhaikwan  has  picturesque  gate-toAvers  and  pa- 
vilions, and  where  its  walls  join  in  with  spurs  and  pro- 
jections of  the  Great  "Wall  the  watery  quadrangles 
and  walled  corners  would  enrapture  and  occupy  an 


SHANHAIKWAN  47 

Occidental  sketch-class  for  many  weeks.  There  are 
quaint  old  brass  cannon  of  the  Ming  period  on  the 
towers,  and  the  tourist  has  attempted  even  to  buy  and 
carry  them  away.  In  the  tea-shops  and  restaurants 
there  were  curious  brass  samovars  wrought  in  grace- 
ful Persian  shapes,  with  the  fire-box  in  the  body  of 
the  vessel,  opening  by  a  butterfly  door  on  the  out- 
side. Wood  chips,  charcoal,  and  coal  were  used  in- 
differently in  these  huge  kettles,  but  all  my  efforts 
to  buy  one  of  these  decorative  Manchurian  samovars 
were  vain.  The  tea-drinkers  lounged  on  hard  stone 
or  clumsy  wood  benches,  before  stone  or  wooden 
tables  of  the  most  durable  kind,  pouring  tea  from 
dingy,  battered  old  tea-pots  of  coarse  green  pottery, 
and  dipping  up  greasy  shreds  and  bits  of  pottage 
from  bowls  decorated  in  elaborate  patterns  with 
menders'  rivets.  In  this  land  of  cheap  porcelain  and 
pottery  one  is  continually  sui-prised  to  see  how  com- 
mon household  pieces  are  mended  and  mended  as  long 
as  there  is  room  for  another  rivet,  and  one  rarely  sees 
a  large  piece  in  table  use  in  foreign  houses  without 
its  meander  lines  of  copper  rivets— the  carelessness  of 
Chinese  servants  matched  by  their  economy. 

There  is  a  mile  of  picturesque,  open  campagna  be- 
tween the  city  wall  and  the  hills,  with  ruined  walls 
and  heaps  of  gray  bricks  everywhere.  These  walls  are 
modern  affairs  of  the  Ming  period,  and  their  thin, 
small  bricks,  although  more  convenient  and  attrac- 
tive as  tourists'  souvenirs,  are  not  the  genuine  two- 
thousand-year-old  ones  by  thirteen  centuries.  These 
half-baked,  modern  Ming  bricks  are  barely  an  inch 
thick,  while  the  hoary  ones  of  Shi-Hwang-Ti's  time  are 


48  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

over  three  inches  thick,  and  to  be  valued  more  highly 
if  particles  of  the  hard  cement  of  their  day  adhere,  as 
this  ancient  white  mortar  is  sovereign  cure  for  all 
diseases  of  the  eye,  and  a  balm  for  flesh-cuts. 

At  a  Manchu  village  among  the  millet-fields,  women 
with  large  feet  and  huge  cross-bar  hair-pins  ran  out 
to  gaze  at  us,  while  their  men-folk  scampered  in  from 
the  fields,  got  carrying-chairs  and  ponies,  and  began 
the  deafening  joy  of  bargaining  to  carry  us  in  chairs 
up  the  steep  zigzags  to  the  mountain  temple.  The 
priests  there  were  amiable  and  clean,  their  labyrinthine 
precincts  spotless,  and  from  terraced  courts  in  mid-air 
one  looked  out  upon  one  of  the  finest  views  in  China 
—the  green  and  golden  plain  of  the  famous  battle- 
field sloping  to  the  sea,  the  town  in  its  midst,  and 
the  Great  "Wall  at  the  left  plunging  steeply  down  and 
running  its  great  air-line  across  the  level.  The  great 
battle  fought  on  this  sloping  plain  of  Shanhaikwan 
at  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  was  the 
last  contest  in  the  series  of  victories  which  placed  the 
young  Manchu  prince  Shunchih  on  the  throne  of 
the  Mings.  The  army,  which  had  marched  through 
the  gates  of  the  Great  Wall  from  Manchuria,  marched 
on  to  Peking,  and  the  burned  and  looted  palaces  re- 
ceived the  Mukden  ruler,  whose  race  has  now  run  to 
ignoble  end.  While  the  old  priest  watches  that  gap 
in  the  wall  beyond  Shanhaikwan,  he  may  yet  see  the 
railway  carrying  the  Manchu's  successors  on  to  Pe- 
king, and  note  the  bloodless  conquest  of  tlie  rolling 
ruble  that  is  circling  to  the  winning  prize-pocket  on 
the  great  game-board  of  Asia. 

A  farm-house  a  quarter  of  a  mile  beyond  the  rail- 


SHANHAIKWAN  49 

road-track  burst  into  flames  that  night,  illuminating 
all  space,  and  the  din  and  uproar  from  the  scene  of 
action  were  borne  to  us  at  the  yamun  so  appallingly 
that  one  wondered  what  the  pandemonium' would  have 
been,  had  the  "  Kapanese  "  landed  at  Shanhaikwan. 

The  next  morning  a  general  and  his  staff,  with 
official  chair,  ponies,  and  bannermen,  a  veritable  cir- 
cus chorus  in  peaked  hats,  and  ragamuffins  of  all 
descriptions,  boarded  the  train  to  go  to  a  near  town 
where  a  lunatic  had  run  amuck  the  night  before  and 
killed  eighteen  people.  The  Celestial  general  was  a 
wrinkled,  grandmotherly  old  creature  in  petticoats 
and  short  gown,  with  beads  around  his  neck  and 
feathered  turban  tied  with  cap-strings  under  his  chin. 
Nothing  more  absurdly  un warlike  could  be  imagined, 
unless  it  were  the  group  of  grandmothers  in  satin 
dressing-gowEs  that  received  the  miscellaneous  com- 
pany of  men  and  ponies  when  they  left  the  train— a 
heelless,  collarless,  pocketless  lot  of  soft-shod  warriors. 


A  MANCHUEIAN  SAMOVAR. 


AS  MARCO   POLO  WENT 

NTIL  1897,  when  the  locomotive  shrieked 
within  three  miles  of  the  ancient  gray 
walls,  one  traveled  from  tide-water  to 
Peking  as  Marco  Polo  traveled ;  sail- 
ing, poling,  and  tracking  up  the  Pei-ho 
River  from  Tientsin  in  native  boats  during  the  sea- 
son of  open  navigation,  or  following  the  frightful 
land  road  on  ponies,  in  mule-carts  or  mule-litters— 
ignominy,  tedium,  and  discomfort  pushed  to  the  ex- 
treme in  every  mode  of  progress.  There  were  no 
changes  in  tourist  customs  or  accommodations  in  six 
centuries.  While  Shanghai  merchants  on  pleasure 
bent  had  been  going  up  and  down  the  rivers  and 
creeks  and  canals  of  their  neighborhood  in  luxurious 
house-boats  of  foreign  construction  for  thirty  years, 
and  every  great  mercantile  house  there  had  its  spa- 
cious "glass  boat"  as  a  matter  of  course,  di})lomats, 
grandees,  noble  and  princely  visitors  traveled  to  Pe- 
king meekly  in  native  boats  hired  for  eacli  occasion. 
None  of  the  legations  su])ported  boats  of  splendid 
trappings,  sacred  to  i)ersonal,  superior  European  use 
only,  such  as  move  upon  tlie  Bosporus. 

00 


AS  MARCO   POLO  WENT  51 

It  was  amusing,  to  be  sure,  to  make  the  trip  once 
by  house-boat,  to  travel  as  Marco  Polo  traveled,  and 
journey  in  the  fashion  of  the  middle  ages,  but  truth 
compels  one  to  state  that  after  a  half-day,  the  Pei-ho 
palled.  Every  mile  of  mud-bank  was  very  like  the 
other  eighty  miles  of  mud-bank;  each  serpentine 
bend  and  set  of  S's  and  Ws  in  the  river's  path  was  a 
little  more  tiresome  than  the  last.  After  a  day,  one 
could  no  longer  be  surprised  and  entertained  by  the 
many  and  elaborate  dishes  served  from  the  tiny,  four- 
foot-long  kitchen,  with  the  aid  of  the  camp-chest  of 
table  utensils  hired  for  the  trip,  together  with  bed- 
ding, from  the  hotel  at  Tientsin.  Such  miracles  are 
too  many  and  too  cheap  in  China. 

The  house-boat  was  carved  and  varnished  and  mod- 
erately gilded  about  the  window-frames  on  the  out- 
side, and  a  tall  mast  held  the  single  square  mainsail 
which  was  to  help  against  the  current.  There  was  a 
small  deck  forward,  under  which  the  crew  kept  all 
sorts  of  things,  and  the  cabin  opened  on  it  by  an 
elaboratel}^  carved  doorway  that  was  closed  at  night 
by  sliding  boards.  There  were  latticed  doors  and 
window-frames,  and  much  gilding,  while  carved  and 
lacquered  panels,  and  bursting  pomegranates  and  con- 
ventionally riotous  gourd-vines  trailed  all  over  the 
artistic  little  salon.  In  the  adjoining  compartment,  a 
raised  platform  formed  the  bed,  and  trunks  were 
stowed  beneath  it.  There  was  a  tiny  kitchen  and 
boys'  quarters  amidships,  and  the  crew  lived  and  fed 
at  the  very  stern.  All  this,  with  a  crew  of  trackers  to 
tow  by  a  rope  made  fast  to  the  tip  of  the  mast,  was 
to  be  enjoyed  for  ten  Mexican  dollars  for  the  trip,  and 


52  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

witli  a  good  boy  and  cook,  and  in  company  witli  an- 
other and  larger  boat,  we  journeyed  along  in  very 
pleasant  fashion.  Each  boat  had  books  and  maga- 
zines galore;  we  dined  and  tiffined  back  and  forth, 
Avalked  the  banks  in  lonely  places,  and  cut  across 
bends  on  foot,  often  having  to  wander  far  from  the 
high  dikes  of  paths  because  of  some  back-water  flood. 
Once  we  went  through  a  village  w^here  the  misery, 
filth,  hardship,  and  horrors  of  poor  country  life  in 
China  were  so  borne  in  upon  one  that  it  seemed  as  if 
the  sum  of  all  suffering  w^ere  centered  there.  From 
that  miserable  place  some  fifty  noisy  and  cheerful 
youngsters,  with  and  without  clothes,  trailed  us  out 
and  along  on  the  high  dike  paths  for  a  mile,  a  queer 
procession  of  silhouettes  to  those  remaining  in  the 
boats'  cabins. 

At  seven  o'clock,  that  first  night  out  of  Tientsin, 
the  boats  stopped,  the  crews  fed  and  turned  in  to 
sleep  until  one  in  the  morning,  when  they  were  to 
resume  travel.  Then  at  candle-light  all  eyes  were  on 
the  alert  to  see  if  the  servants  had  obeyed  threats  and 
orders,  had  emptied  the  boats  entirely,  and  scalded 
them  with  boiling  chemicals  to  dislodge  the  roaches, 
inch-long  kaMerlacs  of  horror,  that  inhabit  these 
gilded  boxes.  The  new  boy  Liu,  who  had  replaced 
the  bellowing  Chung,  was  worthy  of  his  boasts,  and 
not  a  moving  antenna  or  object  rewarded  our  look- 
out, for  Tientsin  residents  can  cause  the  hair  to 
stand  on  end  with  veracious  tales  of  house-boats 
that  were  more  nearly  entomological  museums.  The 
face  of  Liu  was  more  than  ever  that  of  a  well-fed, 
ecstatic,  worldly  buddha,  as  ho  served  the  sou]),  the 


^•ATiVE   BOATS   ON    THK   I'El-HO   HIVEK. 


AS  MARCO  POLO  WENT  55 

crab  croquettes,  the  chops  and  pease,  the  snipe  and 
salad,  a  frothing  souffle,  and  then  hot  chestnuts  and 
fruit,  with  the  clear  black,  admirable  coffee.  Each 
dish  was  perfectly  cooked,  garnished  with  green 
sprigs,  and  served  with  the  decorum  and  precision  of 
the  most  formal  dinner  on  shore.  And  all  this  was 
conjured  from  a  four-foot-square  kitchen,  two  tiny 
charcoal  stoves,  and  the  few  pots  and  pans  carried  in 
a  camp-chest  but  a  little  larger  than  a  dress-suit  case ! 
Truly  Abbe  Hue  was  right  when  he  called  the  Chinese 
a  nation  of  cooks. 

It  was  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  before  Liu's 
voice  of  rage  and  command,  aided  by  the  majordomo 
of  the  other  boat,  got  the  fleet  in  motion.  At  six 
there  was  a  dense  damp  mist  upon  all  the  world,  but 
we  looked  out  to  see  the  piers  of  the  railway-bridge 
at  Yang-tsun,  just  risen  from  their  caisson  works. 
"  This  railroad  very  curious,"  said  the  oracle.  "  All 
these  things  [the  piers]  they  have  built  with  a  wind- 
machine  [compressed  air].  Will  missis  have  tea  stout 
or  thin  ? "  and  through  the  magic  trap-door  came  a 
model  tea-tray.  The  second  day  repeated  the  first  in 
scenery  and  incidents.  We  walked  the  banks  and  cut 
across  fields,  many  of  them  levels  of  caked  mud, 
seamed  with  cracks  as  they  dried  in  the  hot  sun 
after  the  floods.  Once  we  found  a  woman  and  four 
children  crouching  in  a  little  shelter  built  of  millet- 
stalks,  refugees  from  the  flooded  districts  below,  with 
no  other  hope  of  comfort  than  this  lean-to  of  canes 
for  the  bitter  winter  to  follow.  The  landmark  of  the 
day  was  Hsu-si-wo,  site  of  the  allies'  camps  in  1860, 
when  the  capture  of  Mr.  Parkes  and  the  other  com- 


56  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

missioners  hastened  the  march  to  Peking.  A  row  of 
open  mud  booths  and  shops  fronted  the  river-bank, 
where  boatmen  bought  pork  and  cabbage  and  offen- 
sive things,  with  boiled  and  salted  peanuts,  persim- 
mons, and  all  the  fruits  of  the  autumn.  In  one  place, 
a  blindfolded  donkey  trod  a  dreary  round,  grinding 
corn  spread  on  a  round  stone  table,  and  on  the  kang^ 
or  high  mud  platform  of  a  bed,  beside  it  a  soldier 
of  the  empire  lay  fast  asleep,  mouth  open,  and  body 
bent  at  such  angles  that  we  accepted  it  as  the 
ocular  proof  of  what  Dr.  Arthur  Smith  has  said  in 
his  delightful  ''Chinese  Characteristics,"  that  ''best 
book"  of  hundreds  written  about  China,  and  with 
which  one  only  finds  fault  because  there  are  not  six 
more  and  larger  volumes :  "  It  would  be  easy  to 
raise  in  China  an  army  of  a  million  men  —  nay,  of 
ten  millions— tested  by  competitive  examination  as  to 
their  capacity  to  go  to  sleep  across  three  wheelbar- 
rows, with  head  downward  like  a  spider,  their  mouths 
wide  open,  and  a  fly  inside." 

The  third  day's  journey  began  at  two  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  we  dragged  slowly  upward  in  a  gray  world 
of  dampness  all  day.  There  was  the  ugly  mud  vil- 
lage of  Ma-tau,  with  its  line  of  broken-down  hovels 
on  the  river-bank,  where  stale  things  and  fried  things 
were  ranged  in  the  shop-fronts,  and  the  village  shoe- 
maker mended  ragged  cloth  shoes  with  pulp  and 
paper  soles,  the  most  absurd,  senseless,  perishable, 
impracticable  foot-gear  tlie  whole  world  can  offer. 
The  white  man's  scorn  and  contempt  for  this  flimsy 
"  cloth-shoe  civilization  "  of  tlie  Chinese  are  surely  jus- 
tified, for,  with  a  history  running  back  beyond  the 


AS  MAECO  POLO  WENT  57 

ages,  these  people  have  never  devised  a  serviceable 
nor  even  a  waterproof  shoe.  A  mere  bedi'oom  slipper 
of  cloth,  with  a  felt  or  pith  or  paper  sole,  is  the  regu- 
lation foot-covering  of  the  people,  and  even  a  general's 
campaign  boots  are  but  millinery  affairs  of  black  satin. 
Wherefore  a  rain-storm  can  put  an  arm}^  out  of  action, 
check  a  mob,  and,  as  one  can  see  any  showery  day  in 
the  settlements,  send  every  Chinese  running  madly 
for  shelter— all  save  the  barefooted  toilers  and  the 
very  few  who  possess  oiled-paper  boots,  that  barely 
resist  a  light  sprinkle.  The  Russian  will  at  least 
bring  with  him  his  thick,  common-sense  shoes,  and  a 
raw-hide  and  hobnail  civilization  may  do  much  for 
this  paper-soled  race. 

By  a  merciful  dispensation,  the  summer  floods, 
which  drown  the  crops,  turn  the  fields  into  fish-ponds 
where  men  and  boys  catch  the  small  shiners  by 
hand  or  with  dip-nets,  and  we  saw  wretched  creatures 
everywhei'e  eagerly  catching  their  daily  or  their  win- 
ter store  of  food.  Wheelbarrows  drawn  by  donkeys, 
tandem  leaders  to  men  in  harness  between  the  han- 
dles who  steered  as  well,  passed  in  absurd  processions 
along  the  banks. 

At  sundown,  the  ancient  pagoda  and  the  new 
American  flour-mill  of  Tungchow  were  in  sight,  and 
the  next  morning  we  lay  by  the  river-front  of  the 
town,  in  line  with  the  hundreds  of  house-  and  cargo- 
boats  that  there  discharge  their  freight  for  Peking 
and  Mongolia.  There  is  a  canal  which  leads  to  the 
walls  of  the  capital,  but  there  are  five  levels,  and  as 
the  Chinese  brain,  in  all  its  thousands  of  years  of 
fumbling  with  canal  problems,  never  devised  a  canal- 


58  CHINA:  THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

lock,  one  has  to  change  to  a  new  boat  with  all  his 
belongings  at  each  section,  and  then  has  a  three-mile 
cart-  or  cliair-ride  into  the  city  from  the  Eastern 
Expediency  Wicket,  or  gate  in  the  outer  wall.  Other- 
wise one  may  take  a  donkey  or  a  pony,  or  a  sedan- 
chair,  or  the  springless  Peking  cart  for  the  thirteen- 
mOe  ride.  It  was  beginning  to  rain  from  a  thick 
gray  sky.  A  dozen  tourists  and  four  diplomats,  arriv- 
ing the  day  before,  had  taken  all  the  available  closed 
chairs  from  Tungchow,  and  there  was  no  choice  but 
to  pad  the  best-looking  carts  with  mattresses  and  crawl 
into  those  small  torture-chambers  for  what  proved 
to  be  an  all-day  jolt.  The  mud  was  deep  and  noi- 
some in  the  narrow  streets  of  the  waUed  city  of  Tung- 
chow, and  we  waited  long  while  the  head  cart  of  a 
funeral  procession  stuck  fast  and  a  balky  mule  re- 
fused to  pull  it  out.  There  were  embroidered  um- 
brellas and  banners,  and  mock  treasures  paraded  in 
state,  a  string  of  small  priests  howling,  five  carts 
full  of  women  wailing,  and  the  great  colTin  with  its 
embroidered  pall  was  followed  and  surrounded  by  a 
group  of  grieving  male  relatives  attired  like  pastry- 
cooks, in  white  garments  and  white  paper  caps. 

Outside  of  Tungchow  we  crossed  the  splendid 
carved  marble  bridge  where  the  Chinese  army  made  its 
last  stand  in  18G0— Pa-U-kao,  the  ''Eight  Li  Bridge," 
which  won  for  General  Montauban  the  title  of  Count 
Palikao.  Then  all  day  there  succeeded  such  ruts  and 
gullies  and  muddy  ditches,  such  jolting,  thumping,  and 
bumping,  as  decided  one  that  Peking  was  dearly  seen 
at  the  price  of  one  such  ride  in  a  lifetime.  The 
actual  or   recognized,  the   traditional,  conventional 


AS  MARCO  POLO  WENT  69 

road,  a  mere  cut  or  ditch  worn  deep  in  the  clay  of  the 
plain,  was  a  floundering,  bottomless  mud  trough  all 
the  way,  and  we  drove  around  it,  never  in  it,  zig- 
zagging at  right  angles  all  over  the  Peking  plain. 
In  every  field  and  millet-patch  some  man  lay  in  wait 
to  ostentatiously  throw  a  spoonful  of  dirt  in  the  rut 
or  the  ditch  he  had  himself  made,  and  then  extend  his 
hand  for  coin.  All  the  way  to  Peking  our  path  was 
lined  with  extended,  greedy  palms,  and  when,  in  the 
weariness  of  monotony,  we  ordered  a  recess  in  alms- 
giving, a  shrieking  hag,  hobbling  on  dwarfed  feet, 
pursued  us  across  the  field,  raining  such  curses  and 
threats  at  the  trespasser  on  the  millet-field  that  we 
threw  cash  by  the  handful  to  stop  the  clamor.  In 
every  rainy  season  for  uncounted  years  the  same  tricks 
have  been  resorted  to  on  the  Peking  plain,  the  people 
digging  holes  to  break  donkeys'  legs,  and  tossing  hand- 
fuls  of  dirt  in  as  a  cart  approaches.  A  good  mac- 
adamized road  would  rob  the  country  people  of  their 
chief  income  and  would  be  promptly  cross-gullied  for 
their  benefit. 

Family  graveyards,  with  temple  roofs  curving  above 
dense  tree-tops,  were  oases  in  the  plain,  and  occurred 
more  and  more  frequently  until  a  turn  around  a  mud- 
bank  showed  near  at  hand  the  endless  lines  of  the  city's 
gray  walls  and  the  great  soaring  gateways  of  the  north- 
ern capital.  But— having  walked  half  of  the  way  from 
Tungchow,  and,  for  the  rest  of  the  time,  balanced  on 
the  cart-shaft  at  the  very  heels  of  the  mule,  indiffer- 
ent to  sprinkles  of  rain  and  splashings  of  mud  if  only 
one  might  escape  the  awful  thumping  of  the  axletree 
—there  was  no  enthusiasm  to  expend  upon  the  scene, 


60  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

no  possibility  of  being  thrilled,  no  impulse  toward 
apostrophizing,  when  that  greatest  city  wall  and  the 
most  massive  city  gates  of  the  world  came  in  view. 
There  are  nobler,  far  more  beautiful  walls  and  gates 
in  India,  but  for  mere  brute  size,  overpowering  mass, 
oppressive  solidity,  and  cubic  quantity  only  the  Great 
Wall  of  China  can  rank  with  these  gigantic  walls  of 
Peking,  that  shut  in  the  most  picturesque  and  inter- 
esting city  of  China,  the  most  unique  of  all  the  world's 
capitals,  a  living,  working  exhibit  of  the  Eastern  world 
of  tlie  sixteenth  and  even  earlier  centuries— an  ancient 
civilization  brought  to  a  standstill,  arrested,  petrified, 
and  beginning  to  turn  backward  when  that  of  the 
Western  world  only  received  its  greatest  impetus  and 
began  to  advance  by  leaps  and  bounds. 


VI 

PEI-CHING,   THE   NORTHERN   CAPITAL 

g^^^^^^ EKING  is  the  most  incredible,  impossi- 
^MT^T^^  ^^1^,  anomalous,  and  surprising  place  in 
M  I  1^^  the  world ;  the  most  splendid,  spectacu- 
^^^^^^m^  lai'j  picturesque,  and  interesting  city  in 
^^^^^^  China ;  a  Central  Asian  city  of  the  far 
past;  a  fortified  capital  of  the  thirteenth  century 
handed  down  intact.  It  is  the  greatest  contradiction 
of  our  times  that  Peking  is  Peking,  that  such  a  place 
can  exist  at  the  end  of  this  century ;  but  Peking  is  as 
it  always  was,  and  will  be  as  it  is  as  long  as  the  queue 
and  the  cotton  shoe  are  worn  within  its  walls— the 
one  place  that  can  hold  its  own  ancient  flavor  and 
local  color,  and  upon  which  the  demon  of  progress  has 
not  brought  down  the  dread  monotony  of  the  universal 
commonplace. 

Peking  is  the  capital  of  all  China,  yet  what  interests 
and  piques  one  most,  gives  Peking  its  own  individual 
character,  and  distinguishes  it  from  the  other  cities 
of  the  empire,  are  tlie  things  that  are  not  Chinese,  the 
contrasts  and  the  contradictions.  Peking  is  by  first 
intention  a  permanent  Tatar  encampment,  a  fortified 

Gl 


62  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

garrison  of  nomad  bannermen  surrounding  Pei-ching, 
the  northern  palace  of  the  conquering  khan  of  khans. 
The  Tatar  ruler  of  nearly  four  hundred  millions  of  sub- 
ject Chinese  is  closely  surrounded  b}^  his  faithful  Man- 
chu  clansmen  from  beyond  the  Great  Wall,  who  scorn 
and  hate  and  secretly  fear  the  masses  of  Chinese  more 
than  any  outer  enemy ;  who  have  thrown  themselves 
into  the  arms  of  Russia  through  fear  of  the  Chinese ; 
who  have  bargained  that  Russia  shall  send  soldiers  to 
their  aid  when  needed;  who  have  held  back  and 
turned  back  the  wheels  of  progi*ess,  with  a  certain 
prescience  that  the  new  order  would  relegate  them  to 
poverty  and  extinction.  Every  Manchu  is  borne  on 
the  rolls  as  a  bannerman,  and  receives  his  stipend, 
even  if  he  never  bends  a  bow  or  hurls  a  stone  in  mili- 
tary drill.  But  the  Manchu  bannermen  are  no  longer 
the  fierce  warriors  their  ancestors  were,  nor  their  khan 
even  a  hardy'  huntsman  like  the  early  Manchu  em- 
perors. Like  Kublai  Khan's  Mongols  long  before 
them,  these  nomad  horsemen  and  hardy  shepherds  of 
the  plains,  enervated  by  long  peace  and  idle  plenty, 
corrupted  by  the  luxuries  and  vices  of  Chinese  civili- 
zation, have  degenerated  to  a  type  their  marauding 
forefathers  would  scorn  and  scourge,  and  their  capital 
is  an  index  of  the  decadence  of  the  ruling  race,  whose 
end  draws  tragically  near. 

There  had  been  three  cities  there  before  Kublai 
Khan  made  the  splendid  capital  Marco  Polo  first  de- 
scribed for  us.  The  city's  plan,  the  palaces,  the  walls,  all 
date  from  Mongol  times,  the  thirteenth  century.  The 
same  quaint  military  customs  of  the  middle  ages  are 
observed.     The   soldiers  are  drilled  in  archery  and 


PEI-CHING,   THE  NORTHERN  CAPITAL  65 

quoits,  and  the  nine  city  gates  are  clanged  to  at  sun- 
set, shutting  Chinese  subjects  out  in  a  separate  city 
by  themselves,  as  if  their  conquest  were  just  accom- 
plished. 

Yunglo,  the  Ming  Emperor,  extended  the  walls  and 
beautified  the  city  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  but  since  then,  barring  some  repairs  by  the 
Emperor  Kienlung,  more  than  one  hundred  years  ago, 
no  one  has  emulated  that  early  Haussmann.  At  the 
time  of  the  Japanese  war,  a  few  parapets  were  patched, 
some  crumbling  buttresses  rebuilt;  but  otherwise, 
Chinese  indifference  and  inertia,  slipshod  neglect  and 
shiftlessness,  along  with  a  blind  worship  of  ''  old  cus- 
tom," have  preserved  this  unique  capital  of  the  north- 
ern tribes  almost  unchanged. 

The  walls  and  the  gates  are  the  greatest  features  of 
Peking.  Although  one  travels  toward  it  across  the 
great  level  plain  that  extends  from  Peking's  suburban 
hills  for  seven  hundred  miles  southward,  the  city 
walls  are  not  distinguished  until  one  is  near  them. 
Then  they  loom  above  and  stretch  in  such  long,  end- 
less perspective  that  one  loses  measure  of  their  vast- 
ness,  and  the  eye  accepts  them  quite  as  much  as  it 
does  a  range  of  hills  or  any  natural  feature  of  the 
landscape. 

Two  cities,  the  Chinese  and  the  Tatar  Citj',  the 
outer  and  the  inner  city,  lie  side  by  side,  each  entirely 
surrounded  by  a  great  defensive  wall,  and  the  Man- 
chus'  citadel  even  more  strongly  walled  and  defended 
from  the  Chinese  City  than  from  the  outer  plain.  The 
Tatar,  or  the  inner  city,  as  it  is  called,  holds  in  its 
center  the  Yellow  or  Imperial  City,  and  within  that 


66  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

again  is  the  Purple  Forbidden  City,  the  actual  palace 
inclosure,  the  home  of  the  Son  of  Heaven.  One 
enters  first  the  Chinese  City  through  a  deep  arch  in 
the  solid  walls,  and  after  two  miles  comes  to  the  more 
impressive  walls  and  gate-towers  of  the  Tatar  City, 
each  gate  with  a  semicircular  enceinte  around  it.  A 
great  waste  space  extends  along  the  outer  side  of  the 
Tatar  City  walls,  where  carts  stray  in  lines  of  ruts, 
donkeys  wander,  and  camels  move  in  files  like  auto- 
matic silhouettes,  all  enveloped  in  clouds  of  dust.  If 
one  enters  the  Tatar  City  through  the  deep  arch  of 
the  Hata-men,  he  comes  almost  immediately  upon  the 
Chiao-min  Hsiang,  or  Legation  Street,  which  rims 
parallel  with  the  city  wall  for  a  mile,  before  debouch- 
ing on  the  great  square  in  front  of  the  palace  gate. 
All  the  foreign  compounds  are  on  or  near  that  street, 
but  it  is  a  straggling,  impaved  slum  of  a  thorough- 
fare, along  which  one  occasionally  sees  a  European 
picking  his  way  between  the  ruts  and  puddles  with 
the  donkeys  and  camels;  envoys,  plenipotentiaries, 
and  scions  of  la  carriere  dlploniatiqne  liaving  lived 
along  this  broad  gutter  for  nearly  forty  years,  and 
had  just  the  effect  upon  imperial  Peking  that  many 
barbarians  had  upon  imperial  Rome.  But  for  the 
matchless  climate  of  this  northern,  treeless  plain,  the 
same  dry,  cleai*,  sparkling,  exhilarating  air  of  our 
Minnesota  or  Dakota,  the  surface  drainage,  or  rather 
the  undi-ained,  stagnant,  surface  sewage,  would  have 
killed  all  Europeans  by  zymotic  diseases  long  ago. 
There  is  no  water-supply  for  this  city  of  a  half-million 
people,  although  the  Mongol  and  Ming  dynasties  con- 
structed and  maintained  a  splendid  system,  and,  save 


^   4-    -^     ^    ^     i^    t 


SJAl-  OF   PEKING. 


PEI-CHING,   THE   NORTHERN  CAPITAL  69 

for  cisterns  of  rain-water,  householders  must  depend 
upon  wells,  the  water  of  which,  impregnated  with  all 
the  salts  of  the  Chihli  plain,  is  as  hard  and  harsh  as 
that  of  the  Nile  at  Cairo.  The  gift  of  a  tin  of  rain- 
water by  a  diplomatic  friend  in  Peking  is  more  to  be 
appreciated  by  the  newly  arrived  tourist  than  a  bouquet 
of  orchids  in  Paris.  With  a  tropic  summer  heat  and 
deluge  rains  in  that  same  season,  with  zero  winters 
almost  without  snow,  the  streets  either  ankle-deep  in 
dust  or  more  profound  sloughs  of  noisome  mud, 
Peking  offers  more  variety  and  incident  in  physical 
discomfort  and  the  generally  offensive  than  any  other 
world's  capital ;  yet  it  has  a  fascination  and  interests 
different  from  them  all. 

One  can  best  see  Peking  and  fix  the  idea  in  his 
mind  by  ascending  the  walls  and  taking  a  bird's-eye 
view  of  the  two  great  cities  of  low,  black-tiled  houses 
that  lie  side  by  side.  Forty  feet  above  the  streets  and 
smells  one  has  a  splendid,  satisfying,  inspiring  view, 
and  after  one  such  prospect  the  ground-plan  and  the 
four  distinct  walled  cities  are  kept  in  mind.  There  is 
a  quiet,  shady,  forgotten  lane  running  along  the  inner, 
Tatar  side  of  the  stupendous  masonry  pile,  and  a  gate- 
keeper with  a  greedy  palm  opens  a  small  wicket  in  a 
blocked-up  gate,  and  lets  one  ascend  a  sloping  terrace 
walk  to  the  terre-plein  between  the  parapets.  Up  aloft 
there,  one  may  walk  in  peace  on  a  broad,  flagged  way 
more  than  thirty  feet  wide  between  the  vast  projecting 
buttresses,  and  which  extends  unbroken  for  fourteen 
miles  around  the  Tatar  City,  and  for  sixteen  miles 
around  the  Chinese  Cit3\  Great  towers  like  temples, 
with  curving  gable-roofs  shining  witli  green  tiles,  rise 


70  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

over  each  of  the  nine  city  gates ;  the  towers  empty, 
and  squads  of  ragamuffin  soldiers  herding  in  small 
stone  huts  beside  the  parapets.  All  that  upper  walk 
is  overgrown  with  weeds  and  brambles,  a  narrow 
beaten  path  running  between  these  banks  of  under- 
brush. No  Chinese  civilians,  and  never  Chinese  wo- 
men, are  allowed  to  mount  or  to  walk  on  the  walls, 
but  the  privilege  was  extended  to  legation  families  by 
courteous  old  Prince  Kung,  in  the  complaisant  long- 
ago  after  the  allies'  war.  This  one  refuge  and  breath- 
ing-place, where  one  is  free  from  the  madding, 
infragrant  crowd,  was  closed  to  foreigners  for  a  time, 
when  one  tourist  had  spurred  his  horse  past  a  dazed 
gate-keeper  and  galloped  half  around  the  city  before  he 
descended  and  stilled  the  clamor  and  tom-toming  at 
every  guard-house  in  his  rear.  Yet  another  tourist  is 
charged  with  scorching  around  the  wall  on  his  bicycle 
and  spoiling  the  f ung-shui,  or  favorable  geomantic  in- 
fluences, by  the  circle  of  his  infernal  machine.  The 
populace  do  not  relish  seeing  foreigners  on  the  wall, 
and  once,  while  leaning  on  the  parapet  directly  over 
the  Hata-men  arch,  the  smoking  soldier-in-ohief  came, 
spoke  and  gesticulated  earnestly,  and  our  servant 
translated :  ''  He  say  must  come  back  here.  People 
see  you  now,  and  get  very  mad.  Maybe  he  lose  his 
job." 

From  this  Hata-men,  or  Chung-wen-men  (the  "  Gate 
of  Sublime  Learning  "),  one  looks  northward  for  three 
miles  across  tiled  roofs  and  tree-tops  to  the  towers 
over  the  north  gates  of  the  Tatar  City.  Temple  roofs 
and  yamun  roofs  soar  among  the  trees  in  the  Tatar 
City,  and  one  can  trace  the  long  walls  and  great  red 


PEI-CHING,   THE  NORTHERN  CAPITAL  73 

gates  of  the  Yellow  or  Imperial  City,  within  which 
again  the  yellow-tiled  walls  of  the  Purple  Forbidden 
City  are  traced  for  two  miles  from  the  great  south 
gates  to  the  tree-covered  knolls  of  the  Meishan,  at  the 
far  end  of  the  palace  grounds.  The  magnets  for  the 
eye  in  all  this  view  are  the  great,  gUstening,  yellow- 
tiled  palace  roofs  that  rise  in  the  heart  of  the  bowery 
citadel,  overlapping  as  they  stretch  in  long  perspec- 
tive ;  but,  after  the  satisfaction  of  looking  upon  these 
palace  walls  and  gables,  I  suffered  an  acute  disap- 
pointment in  those  famous  yellow  tiles.  They  do  not 
flash  and  glitter  with  a  clear,  golden  glory,  as  on  the 
dragon  palace  of  one's  dreams,  and  the  imperial  yellow 
of  these  tiles  is  a  coarse,  opaque,  dingy  tint,  not  the 
pure  yellow  of  mustard-flowers,  but  the  gritty,  pasty, 
powdery,  surface  yellow  of  mustard-paste.  No  tall 
towers  or  great  pagodas,  no  flags  or  banners,  show 
from  the  forbidden  precincts,  and  the  shimmer  of 
these  great  roofs  is  all  that  one  sees  of  truly  imperial 
Peking.  Southward  the  rectangle  of  the  Chinese 
City  is  a  monotony  of  tiled  roofs  or  waste  tracts,  the 
domed  roof  of  the  Temple  of  Heaven,  in  its  great 
park,  the  only  dominating  feature. 

One  may  walk  the  mile  from  the  Hata-men  to  the 
Chien-men,  the  main,  meridional,  or  front  gate  of  the 
Tatar  City,  which  faces  the  great  square,  or  place 
d'armes,  before  the  palace  gate,  and  there  find  himself 
at  the  very  heart  of  Peking,  or  at  least  over  its  main 
artery.  The  great  streams  of  trade  and  travel  be- 
tween the  inner  and  outer  cities  go  through  the  tunnel 
of  that  gate  and  the  two  lateral  gates  in  its  semicir- 
cular enceinte,  carts,  donkeys,  camels,  chairs,  wheel- 


74  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

barrows,  and  foot-passengers  streaming  through  from 
sunrise  to  sunset.  The  main  south  gates  of  the 
palace  are  closed  and  lifeless,  no  guards,  or  flags,  or 
minions  going  in  and  out,  to  give  the  red  doors  and 
yellow  roofs  any  more  value  than  blank  walls.  In 
winter,  picturesque  Mongols  in  long  yellow  gowns  and 
quaint  fur  hats  hold  a  daily  horse-market  in  that 
open  square,  and  always  a  legion  of  fakers  and  ped- 
dlers are  encamped  there  and  about  the  two  little,  yel- 
low-roofed temples  within  the  enceinte.  Arcades  of 
rich  shops  surround  this  palace  square,  and  streets 
stretch  away  under  jjailows,  or  skeleton  gates  of  honor 
erected  by  imperial  permission  to  the  memory  of 
deceased  ones  of  great  virtues  and  exemplary  lives. 
Through  them  streams  of  busy  life  converge  to  this 
focal  point,  until  the  hum,  the  shouts,  the  movement 
and  clouds  of  dust  give  one  an  idea  of  the  busy,  living 
Peking  of  to-day.  The  middle  gate  in  the  Chien- 
men's  encircling  enceinte  is  opened  only  for  the  Em- 
peror's use,  and  gives  dire(;tly  upon  a  marble  bridge 
crossing  the  moat,  whence  a  splendid  broad  street 
continues,  at  first  under  rows  of  monumental  pailows, 
due  south  for  two  miles  to  the  parks  surrounding 
the  Temple  of  Heaven  and  the  Temple  of  Agriculture, 
where  the  Emperor  worships  in  state  twice  eacli  year. 
Nowhere  in  China  is  the  street  life  so  bus}',  bright, 
and  picturesque  as  in  Peking,  with  such  unceasing 
variety  of  type  and  costume,  incident  and  spectacular 
display.  Tlie  most  noticeable  and  striking  feature, 
the  peculiarity  wliich  gives  most  brilliancy  and  in- 
terest to  all  street  scenes  and  outdoor  life,  is  the 
presence  of  women  —  tall,  splendid  Mauchu  women. 


PEI-CHING,   THE  NORTHERN  CAPITAL  77 

who  walk  with  sturdy  tread  freely  on  their  full- 
grown,  natural  feet,  and  balance  their  magnificent 
head-dresses  with  conscious  pride.  The  Manchu 
women's  coiffure  is  the  most  picturesque,  and  their 
long  Manchu  robe  the  most  dignified  of  any  costume 
in  Asia.  In  my  first  breatliless  delight  in  each  of 
these  striking  figures,  these  far-northeastern  living 
pictures,  I  berated  all  my  traveled  acquaintances, 
who,  harping  on  the  dirt  and  the  dilapidation,  the 
offensive  smells  and  sights,  of  Peking,  had  never  told 
me  of  these  Manchu  women,  with  their  broad  gold 
pins,  wings  of  blue-black  hair,  and  great  bouquets 
and  coronals  of  flowers,  the  bewitching  pictures  in 
every  thoroughfare.  Nor  any  more  had  they  given 
me  an  idea  of  the  bewildering  interest  and  richness 
of  the  street  life,  something  of  which  at  every  moment 
catches  and  dazzles  the  eye  and  fixes  one's  attention 
—the  real  sights  of  Peking,  not  the  walls  and  temples 
and  monuments  set  down  in  the  abbreviated  and 
scholarly  local  guide-book,  but  the  throngs  of  all 
classes  of  two  races,  who  give  continuous  perform^ 
ances  all  over  the  twin  cities. 

At  the  Chien-men  all  activity  centers,  and  the  open- 
air  dramas  are  most  diverting.  The  Emperor's  sacred 
middle  south  gate  opens  upon  a  broad  marble  bridge, 
carved  to  the  fineness  of  lace  and  once  snow-white, 
but  now  grimed,  greased,  battered,  worn,  and  stained 
with  the  dirt  of  ages,  its  graceful  balustrades  half 
hidden  by  the  frightful  company  of  beggars  and 
lepers   assembled  there. 

Where  life  centered  there  was  death  also,  and  I 
never  went  to  this  main  gate  of  the  Chinese  City 


78  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

without  encountering  a  funeral.  Often  my  cart  was 
blocked  on  tlie  broad  meridian  street  by  some  grievous 
and  elaborate  parade.  And  what  a  motley  grief  wears 
at  this  capital !  One  hears  the  funeral  from  afar  as  the 
clang  of  cymbals  and  gongs  and  wind-instruments,  the 
howls  of  the  hired  mourners  are  borne  to  one,  and  all 
the  air  is  filled  with  the  mighty  boo-lioo,  hoo-Jioo-Jwo-hoos 
wheezed  from  a  long  horn  that  looks,  and  is  worked, 
like  a  gigantic  garden  syringe.  The  boo-hoos  of  the 
mourners  were  feeble  and  in  minor  keys  compared 
with  this  sobbing  pump,  and  the  mourners  often 
stopped  dry-eyed,  in  the  midst  of  a  wail,  to  gape  at 
us  as  we  thrust  our  heads  from  cart-fronts  the  better 
to  see  them  and  the  "Palstaffian  parade.  Abbe  Hue 
long  ago  remarked  that  the  Chinese  possess  "the 
most  astonishing  talent  for  going  distracted  in  cold 
blood  " ;  and  these  funeral  parades  all  prove  it.  For 
a  first-class  funeral,  the  manager  of  such  pomps  and 
vanities  gathers  up  street  boys  and  beggars,  tricks 
them  out  in  uniform  coats  and  peaked  hats,  and  as- 
signs them  embroidered  umbrellas,  red-and-gold- 
lettered  standards  and  boards,  which  they  hang  over 
their  shoulders  at  all  angles  as  they  straggle  along. 
Other  ragamuffins  carry  imitations  of  the  dead  man's 
treasures,  which  are  burned  at  the  grave  in  order  that 
he  may  have  them  in  the  world  beyond— card  houses 
and  carts,  paper  men,  women,  horses,  jewels,  clocks, 
vases,  and  curios  of  every  kind,  heai)S  of  paper  coin 
and  paper  money,  myriad  sheets  of  false  gold  and 
silver  foil,  and  syrees,  or  shoe-shaped  ingots— all  these 
consumed  in  magnifieent,  extravagant  show  of  wealth 
and  belief  in  a  material  future  life. 


PEI-CHING,  THE  NORTHERN  CAPITAL  81 

Lucky  days  must  have  been  many  during  the  au- 
tumn month  I  spent  at  Peking,  for  the  gorgeous  red 
wedding-chair  conveying  a  bride  to  her  home  was 
another  frequent  sight.  Not  a  glimpse  could  one  get 
of  the  jeweled  treasure  within,  and  one  had  to  speculate 
on  the  unseen,  like  the  bridegroom  himself.  More 
splendid  than  the  red  box  of  the  bride  was  the  red- 
bodied  cart  of  rank,  carrjdng  a  palace  beauty  about 
the  Imperial  City,  which  I  often  met  near  the  palace 
gates.  The  first  such  vision— a  young  Manchu  beauty 
in  full  ceremonial  dress,  with  her  hair  piled  high  with 
gorgeous  flower-bunches,  and  loops,  chains,  and  tassels 
of  pearls  pendent  from  the  great  gold  bar  balanced 
across  her  blue-black  hair— quite  took  my  breath  away. 
"  Emperor's  relatives,"  said  my  awe-struck  servant,  as 
he  balanced  himself  on  the  cart-shaft ;  and  the  glimpse 
of  that  radiant,  motionless  heathen  goddess,  clearly 
visible  in  full  face  and  then  in  profile  through  the 
gauze  curtains  of  her  shrine,  lifted  the  Peking  cart  for- 
ever from  the  realms  of  the  commonplace.  At  every 
red-bodied  cart  in  range  I  fixed  all  attention,  most 
usually  rewarded  by  the  tableau  of  some  fat,  spec- 
tacled mandarin  sitting  cross-legged  in  unctuous  ease ; 
but  one  vision  of  a  statuesque  court  beauty  repaid 
one  for  many  disappointments. 

The  Peking  cart  has  been  dwelt  upon  with  vituper- 
ation, ridicule,  and  abuse  by  all  who  have  endured  its 
jolts  and  poundings,  but  the  half  cannot  be  told. 
The  lines  of  the  one  conventional  cart  model  in  com- 
mon use  have  not  been  changed  since  Marco  Polo's 
time,  and  this  primitive,  archaic  vehicle  has  solid 
axles  with  hubs  like  kegs,  and  nail-studded  wheels 


82  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

heavier  than  those  of  any  Roman  chariot.  A  good 
road  would  be  ruined  in  a  week  by  sueli  cart-wheels, 
and  the  cart  must  go  if  ever  Peking  streets  are  paved 
or  macadamized.  Each  mule  steps  in  the  last  mule's 
tracks,  each  wlieel  cuts  deeper  the  rut  already  made 
in  the  dirt  road,  and  as  the  square  platform  or  body 
rests  directly  on  the  axle,  the  occupant  gets  the  full  ben- 
efit of  every  jolt  and  obstacle.  The  gait  of  the  mule 
affects  one,  too,  and  if  it  steps  briskly,  even  on  smooth 
ground,  one  begs  the  carter  to  say  "  Wu-wu-wu"  to  the 
mule  and  slow  down  its  gait.  One  enters  the  cart 
head  first,  stepping  up  on  a  little  stool,  putting  the 
knee  on  the  shaft,  crawling  in  on  the  padded  floor  on 
all  fours,  turning,  and  tucking  his  heels  under  him  as 
he  faces  front.  Anything  less  graceful  or  less  digni- 
fied cannot  be  imagined,  and  for  mighty  mandarins 
and  ministers,  princes,  potentates,  and  foreign  envoys 
to  crawl  into  a  veliicle  on  all  fours,  and  sit  flat  on  its 
floor  until  tlie  time  comes  to  dismount  feet  foremost, 
dropping  one  foot  on  the  tiny  stool  so  dangerously 
near  to  the  mule's  heels,  passes  all  belief.  The  Chi- 
nese have  an  inimitable  way  of  leaving  a  cart,  shoot- 
ing out  as  it  stops,  like  a  jack-in-the-box,  unfolding 
their  legs  in  air,  and  alighting  evenly  on  their  soft, 
thick  soles ;  biit  even  these  experts  must  mount  or 
enter  in  the  same  ignoble  manner  on  all  fours.  There 
is  a  tradition  tliat  one  can  learn  to  enter  and  leave  a 
Peking  cart  gracefully,  if  he  gives  as  mucli  time  to  it 
as  to  learning  the  language ;  but  I  did  not  hear  of 
nor  see  any  sinologue  whose  cart  exercises  could  be 
studied  as  models  of  grace. 

There  are  variations  in  carts  which  modifv  the  de- 


PEI-CHING,   THE   NORTHERN  CAPITAL  83 

gree  of  misery,  the  official  cart  being  very  long 
in  the  body,  with  the  axle  placed  so  far  back  that 
one  has  a  little  of  the  spring  of  a  buckboard,  and 
a  surcease  from  the  pounding,  that  is  almost  equal  to 
the  pleasure  of  sitting  sidewise  on  one  shaft  and 
dangling  one's  heels  close  beside  the  mule's  heels  in 
clouds  of  dust  or  spatters  of  mud.  The  official  cart 
has  more  black  trimmings  on  its  barrel-top  canopy, 
which  is  of  cloth  instead  of  cotton  stuff,  and  the  carts 
of  highest  rank  have  a  broad  strip  of  red  cloth  around 
the  base.  The  official  cart  has  always  windows  at 
the  sides,  so  that  the  occupant  is  not  restricted  to 
one  tunnel-like  view  ahead.  The  windows  are  cov- 
ered with  black  silk  gauze,  and  it  is  good  form  always 
to  droj)  the  front  curtain  of  gauze,  and  ride  in  visible 
retirement  safe  from  the  clouds  of  nauseous  dust.  In 
winter,  thick  curtains  shut  out  the  cold,  and  the  cart  is 
a  nest  of  furs,  with  Mongol  braziers  besides,  that  are 
not  nnlike  the  Kashmiri  fire-basket.  In  rainy  weather, 
the  cart  is  enveloped  in  oiled  paper,  and  in  summer 
an  extension  canopy  or  curtain  is  stretched  out  to 
protect  the  carter  and  his  mule  from  the  blaze  of  a 
desert  sun.  Foreigners  have  modified  the  cart  of  the 
country  by  cutting  an  entrance-door  at  one  side  and 
a  hole  in  the  bottom,  below  which  a  box  or  well  for 
the  feet  permits  one  to  sit  with  bent  knees.  By 
making  fast  an  upholstered  drawing-room  chair  with 
extra-strong  springs  in  the  seat,  and  using  many 
pillows,  one  may  be  carted  about  Peking  witli  some 
comfort ;  and,  moreover,  if  he  stays  long  enough  to 
forget  the  barbarian  world  and  to  lose  the  keen  sense 
of  comparison,  he  will  even  be  sensible  of  points  of 


84  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

style  in  the  two-wheeled  mnle-cart,  with  its  mounted 
outrider  in  turban  hat,  that  would  be  side-splitting 
features  in  any  circus  procession  at  home. 

Good  riding-ponies  are  to  be  had  in  Peking,  selected 
from  droves  which  the  Mongol  herdsmen  drive  down 
from  the  plains  every  autumn,  and  from  the  saddle  one 
has  sight  over  the  carts  and  crowds  of  people  in  the 
highways.  There  are  donkeys,  too,  for  hire,  but  they 
are  looked  on  with  scorn  in  Peking,  only  the  common- 
est people  using  the  despised  animals.  Sedan-chairs 
are  restricted  to  official  use  at  extravagant  charges,  and 
the  bearers  are  slow,  slipsliod  joggers  to  any  one  who 
has  known  the  perfection  of  motion  behind  the  steady, 
swinging  tread  of  Hongkong  bearers.  There  are 
camels,  to  be  sure,  and  the  strings  of  slow,  silently  mov- 
ing creatures  bringing  coal  and  wool  into  the  city  are 
the  most  frequent  and  characteristic  sights  of  Peking, 
the  swinging,  automatic,  silent  tread  of  the  shaggj'^ 
beasts  being  fascinating  and  hypnotic,  and  forever 
associated  in  background  with  the  vista  of  the  end- 
less city  wall.  These  two-humped,  woolly  Bactrian 
camels,  that  cross  Siberia  in  great  caravans  over  the 
winter  snows,  and  can  only  travel  during  the  cool 
night  hours  in  summer,  are  not  like  the  swift  drome- 
dary of  Egypt  and  Arabia  in  gait,  and  are  not  trained 
to  the  saddle. 


VII 

THE   TATAR  CITY  OF   KUBLAI   KHAN 

'EKING  is  sadly  lacking  in  guide-book 
sights,  in  buildings,  monuments,  public 
works  of  art,  or  historic  spots  that  can 
appeal  to  one  to  whom  Chinese  dynas- 
ties and  rulers  are  but  empty  names, 
shibboleths,  ciphers,  and  symbols  of  the  ceramic  craze 
only.  All  that  is  best  worth  seeing  in  the  way  of 
temples  is  barred  and  forbidden ;  each  year  some 
other  attractive  or  interesting  place  is  closed  to  visi- 
tors, and  the  difficulties  and  annoyances  of  entrance 
to  any  of  the  show-places  make  the  scant  sight-seeing 
that  is  possible  in  Peking  a  trial  and  a  test  of  endur- 
ance. One  must  bargain  and  pay  to  enter  anywhere, 
and  when  one  has  satisfied  the  greedy  gate-keepers,  a 
swarm  of  neighborhood  idlers  and  children  troop  in 
without  price,  crowd  around  and  elbow  one,  trip  his 
feet,  and  make  the  air  hideous  with  jeers,  catcalls, 
and  mimickings  of  foreign  speech.  One  may  have 
murder  in  his  heart,  but  he  does  not  do  it,  does  not 
dare  to  notice  or  lay  stick  upon  a  single  baboon  tor- 
mentor ;  for  a  Chinese  crowd  is  an  uncertain,  uncon- 

85 


86  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

trollable  quantity,  with  no  fear  of  mandarin,  emperor, 
or  foreign  powers. 

The  great  sights  are  the  Observatory  on  the  walls, 
the  Examination  Hall,  the  Confucian  Temple,  the 
Lama  Temple,  the  Clock-tower,  the  Drum-tower,  the 
palace  gates,  the  Temple  of  Heaven,  and  the  Temple 
of  Agriculture.  The  last  two  objects  are  sequestered 
in  vast  parks  at  the  extreme  south  end  of  the  Chinese 
City,  and  one  sees  them  by  the  aid  of  opera-glasses 
from  the  nearest  point  of  view  on  the  south  wall.  The 
Observatory  possesses  quaint  old  bronze  instruments, 
mounted  on  elaborate  arrangements  of  writhing 
dragons  and  clouds— the  finest  works  of  ancient 
art  to  be  seen  at  the  capital.  The  old  buildings  be- 
low and  the  platform  on  the  wall  are  successors  of 
the  tall  tower  of  the  Persian  astronomers  and  astrol- 
ogers who  came  with  Kublai  Khan.  Until  the 
Emperor  Yunglo's  time  that  tower  marked  the  south- 
east angle  of  the  Tatar  City  wall,  but  that  builder  of 
the  present  great  walls  and  towers  moved  the  city  line 
south  in  order  to  give  room  for  nobler  approaches  to 
his  palace  gates.  Jesuit  astronomers  came  out  from 
France,  and  Louis  XIV  sent  with  them  a  large  bronze 
azimuth  and  celestial  globe  to  the  Emperor  Kanghsi. 
In  1G74  Father  Verbeist,  the  official  astronomer  and 
president  of  the  Board  of  Works,  was  commanded  to 
make  a  full  set  of  instruments,  and  from  his  designs 
Chinese  artists  modeled  and  cast  the  splendid  grouj) 
of  dragon-wreathed  bronze  instruments  that  one  ad- 
mires there  now.  A  water-clock,  or  clepsydra,  is  in  one 
of  the  buildings  in  the  ground  court,  but,  since  the 
vandalism  of  a  tourist  years  ago,  the  guardians  rarely 


THE   TATAR  CITY  OF   KUBLAI  KHAN  87 

let  one  look  in  at  the  series  of  copper  cisterns.  The 
Chinese  were  apt  pupils  of  both  Arab  and  Jesuit  ^ 
teachers,  and  the  Board  of  Astronomers  is  one  of  the 
most  important  of  the  government  departments  to- 
day. They  compute  eclipses  and  calculate  solar  and 
lunar  incidents  with  precision  for  the  official  calendar 
or  almanac ;  but  when  the  moment  of  the  eclipse  ar- 
rives, the  members  of  the  honorable  board  assemble 
in  the  courtyard  in  state  robes,  and  frantically  beat 
tom-toms  to  scare  away  the  dragon  which  is  about  to 
swallow  the  sun  or  the  moon. 

The  Examination  Hall  nearly  adjoins  the  Ob- 
servatory, a  great  inclosure  filled  with  tiled  sheds, 
suggesting  cattle-pens.  There  learning  abides  and 
honors  emanate,  and  civil  service,  by  competitive 
examination,  is  carried  to  burlesque  every  third  year, 
wlien  three  thousand  diplomaed  students  from  all 
the  provinces  are  penned  up  while  they  write  essays 
on  Confucian  philosopliy  to  prove  their  fitness  to  act 
as  civil  and  judicial  officials  and  squeeze  the  last  pos- 
sible cash  from  the  common  people.  One  enters 
through  tottering  yellow  pailows  and  dilapidated 
gates  to  the  literary  stock-yards,  with  the  rows  of 
brick  alcove  cells  where  the  candidates  are  kept  in 
solitary  confinement  for  three  days  and  two  nights. 
A  central  bell-tower  overlooks  it  all,  and  at  the  end 
are  the  pavilion  and  halls  where  the  judges  first  select 
three  hundred  and  sixty  papers  from  the  three  thou- 
sand, from  them  choose  the  best  eighteen  essays,  and 
then  the  tliree  superior  ones  whose  authors  are  to  rank 
with  the  immortals.  These  three  are  given  the  liigh- 
est  degree  of  doctor  of  literature  by  the  Emperor 


88  CHINA:  THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

himself,  and  their  names  are  cut  on  tablets  at  the  Con- 
fucian Temple.  Knowing  the  abject  worship  of  learn- 
(  ing,  the  profound  reverence  for  the  written  word,  and 
the  senseless  exaltation  of  the  literati  which  prevail  in 
China,  one  may  have  believed  that  these  examinations 
had  remained  uncorrupted  in  this  land  of  universal 
corruption,  that  these  triennials  were  fair  and  thorough 
tests  of  learning,  that  the  judges  were  honest  and  up- 
right, and  that  the  wholesale  moral  and  material 
decay  of  China  had  spared  this  one  feature  of  the 
national  life.  One  learns  that  the  examination-papers 
and  the  necessary  essays  may  be  bought  beforehand ; 
that  the  judges  may  be  bribed  to  recognize  certain 
marks ;  that  needy  scholars,  without  influence  to  push 
them  after  they  have  won  a  degree,  will  personate 
the  dunces  of  great  families,  for  whom  offices,  honors, 
and  emoluments  are  waiting  as  soon  as  they  receive 
the  stamp  of  the  literary  examiners ;  that  not  only 
fraud  and  corruption  and  collusion  are  rampant  in 
these  classic  halls,  but  that  intimidation  is  also  re- 
sorted to,  and  the  judges  are  tlireatened,  hounded, 
stoned,  beaten,  and  "  hustled "  by  mobs  of  fellow- 
provincials  and  family  followers  waiting  upon  the 
success  of  individual  candidates.  Peking  is  filled 
with  disappointed  scholars  who  have  failed  at  the  ex- 
aminations and  have  a  scorn  of  trade  or  honest  work, 
and  there  are  from  thirty  to  eighty  thousand  waiting 
graduates  in  the  empire,  successful  candidates  who 
have  passed  the  ordeal,  but  lack  the  money  or  influence 
necessary  to  secure  a  government  office.  All  these 
idle,  useless,  worthless  literati  are  the  bane  and  terror 
of  the  government.     They  are  not  yet  enlightened 


THE   TATAR  CITY   OF  KUBLAI  KHAN  91 

enough  to  become  political  agitators,  reformers,  or 
bomb-throwers,  but  they  constitute  a  force  to  be 
reckoned  with  when  progress  really  makes  a  start, 
when  China  awakens. 

One  thumps  and  jolts  his  way  northward  a  mile 
and  more,  either  by  shady  streets  of  old  Manehu 
residences,  or  along  the  main  street  running  from 
the  Hata-men's  arch,  the  latter  a  broad,  busy  thor- 
oughfare, lined  with  shops  with  gaudy  fronts  and 
gables,  and  double-lined  with  booths,  mat-  and  canvas- 
covered  stalls.  Carts  traverse  a  raised  causeway,— 
a  dike  between  two  awful  ditches  of  open  sewers  or 
cesspools,— and  the  traffic  is  so  great,  and  blockades 
are  so  frequent,  that  one  is  in  constant  terror  of  be- 
ing backed  into  these  foul  ditches  and  pools  of  horror 
by  a  locked  wheel,  a  balking  mule,  or  a  crumbling 
bank's  edge.  Where  a  broad,  lateral  street  crosses 
at  right  angles  each  approach  is  spanned  by  a  grand 
pailow,  these  commemorative  wooden  arches  in  Pe- 
king being  strangely  shabby  and  rickety  compared 
with  the  splendid  carved  granite  and  marble  pailow 
of  the  Grand  Canal  and  South  China.  At  this  cross- 
roads of  commerce— the  Four  Fallows- the  great 
banks,  the  tea-,  silk-,  medicine-,  and  confectionery- 
shops  of  the  Tatar  City  are  gathered,  and  there  is 
always  a  blockade  of  carts,  chairs,  wheelbarrows, 
camels,  mules,  and  donkeys,  and  an  incredible  stream 
of  people— Mongols  from  the  plains,  Manehu  notables 
and  common  folk,  priests,  spectacled  Chinese,  and  al- 
ways the  Manehu  women  in  their  gorgeous  coiffures 
as  brilliant  features  in  this  fashionable  shopping 
quarter.     The  Four  Pailow  tea-sliop  has  a  front  so 


92  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

carved  and  ^Ided  that  one  can  hardly  credit  its  con- 
secration to  commerce  and  trade ;  but  he  buys  there 
the  same  perfumed  oolong,  redolent  of  jasmine-buds 
or  Olea  fragrant,  that  is  served  one  at  the  superior 
silk-  and  curio-shops,  until  he  learns  to  like  it  and 
forever  associate  it  with  certain  stone-floored  interiors, 
the  dazzle  of  splendid  fabrics,  and  crowded  displays 
of  rich  art  objects.  The  Four  Fallow  drug-store  is 
carved  and  gilded  out  of  all  reason,  and  the  confec- 
tioner's shop  is  as  alluring  without  all  the  sugared  and 
honeyed  sweets  on  the  counters.  At  the  Four  Fallow 
silk-shop  one  is  ushered  in,  according  to  his  purse  and 
rank,  to  farther  and  farther  courts,  the  tribute  of  sig- 
nal esteem  being  isolation  in  a  far-back,  lonely,  stony 
sepulcher  or  little  trade  temple,  with  two  reserve  al- 
cove rooms,  where  braziers  and  hot  tea  are  needed  to 
thaw  and  cheer  one  between  the  waits  for  more  and 
more  baskets  and  armfuls  of  silks,  satins,  brocades, 
velvets,  crapes,  gauze,  linen,  and  furs  from  their  sep- 
arate storehouses.  Tailors  and  embroiderers  ply  the 
needle  and  the  goose  in  long  side-buildings,  and  there 
is  a  room  of  remnants  that  would  set  Occidental  shop- 
pers wild,  while  in  the  mirrored  salesroom  near  the 
street  Manchu  matrons,  in  their  flowered  and  gold- 
barred  coiffures,  deliberate  over  the  stuffs  for  their 
future  finery. 

^At  the  far  north  end  of  this  busy  main  street  one 
passes  the  first  pailowed  entrance  and  open  court  of 
the  Lar.ia  Temple,  which  was  for  years  the  great 
sight  and  show-place  of  Feking,  but  is  now  closed 
past  the  most  extravagant  bribes,  no  fees  sufficing 
for  the  gate-keeper  and  the  horde  of  A'icious,  raven- 


THE  TATAR  CITY  OF   KUBLAI  KHAN  93 

ing  Mongol  Buddhist  priests.  Visitors  used  to  pay 
roundly  to  enter  and  penetrate  the  five  courts,  to 
hear  the  yellow-robed  lamas  at  service,  and  see  the 
colossal  gilded  Buddha,  the  remarkable  bronze  and 
enamel  altar-vases,  the  books  and  pictures.^  Then 
they  paid  as  extravagantly  at  each  gate  of  departure 
from  the  dangerous  demesne,  and  such  an  experience 
as  Mr  Henry  Norman  relates  in  "  The  Peoples  and 
Politics  of  the  Far  East"  is  sufficient  warning  to 
tourists  for  all  time. 

The  place  was  first  the  palace  of  that  seventeenth 
son  of  Kanghsi's  who  succeeded  him  as  the  Emperor 
Yung  Cheng,  and  who  upon  his  accession  made  it 
over  for  religious  uses,  together  with  an  endowment 
sufficient  to  support  three  thousand  lamas.  Their 
number  diminished  to  one  thousand  as  the  great  re- 
ligion lost  life  and  vogue  in  China,  and  there  are  now 
only  about  five  hundred  tonsured,  yellow-robed  scoun- 
drels there,  a  band  of  sacerdotal  villains,  whose  coun- 
tenances suggest  that  they,  like  other  priests  in  China, 
may  be  fugitives  from  justice,  criminals  of  the  deepest 
dye,  who  adopt  the  religious  life  as  a  cloak  and  seek 
the  monastery  as  a  refuge  from  the  law. 

The  Lama  serai  has  the  same  yellow-tiled  roof  as 
the  palace,  and  the  lamas  were  permitted  to  speak 
to  the  Emperor  face  to  face.  The  living  buddha 
who  rules  the  place,  subject  to  the  dalai-lama  of 
Tibet,  was  for  some  years  accessible  to  visitors,  who 
used  to  converse  freely  with  this  holy  one,  but  no 
foreigner  has  talked  with  this  Gageu  in  recent  years. 
This  temple  is  the  place  where  occultism  and  mystic 
things  were  taught,  where  yogis  and  mahatmas  and 


u 


94  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

saints  with  astral  bodies  practised  and  imparted  their 
secret  powers ;  but  occult  China  is  all  impenetrable 
now,  and  disappointed  investigators  denounce  the 
mystic  Buddhism  as  naught  but  rankest  astrology, 
Shamanism,  and  demonology,  its  priests  in  Peking 
sunk  as  low  as  among  the  farther  northern  tribes. 
All  the  cutthroat-looking  Mongolian  and  Tibetan 
lamas  who  come  to  Peking  put  up  at  this  temple, 
and  there  are  often  pilgrims  and  fakirs  like  that 
Tibetan  who  wore  an  iron  spike  tlirough  both  cheeks 
as  a  sign  of  and  aid  to  holiness,  and  with  an  eye  to 
worldly  gains  posed  to  all  the  amateur  photographers 
of  Peking  for  a  consideration. 

( The  gate  of  the  Confucian  Temple  is  always 
slammed  shut  at  sight  of  foreign  visitors,  who  treat 
through  well-worn  cracks  in  the  panels  for  the  privi- 
lege of  entering,  poking  silv^er  dollars  and  Peking 
tiaos,  or  bank-notes,  through  until  Cerberus  is  satis- 
fied. Meanwhile  the  rabble  gathers,  and  when  the 
gates  swing  open  all  the  tag-rags,  Arabs,  beggars, 
and  neighbors  stream  in  witliout  price,  and  fairly 
prevent  one  from  seeing  the  first  court  with  their 
maddening  chatter,  jeers,  and  horse-play.  Venerable 
cedar-trees  shade  the  first  flagged  court,  where  the 
deeply  bayed  gate-house,  or  antetemple,  is  raised  on  a 
terrace;  and  this  splendid  entrance-porch,  with  its 
stone  tablets  and  two-thousand-five-hundred-year-old 
stone  drums,  is  all  for  the  Emperor's  use  at  liis  annual 
visit.  The  commoner  passes  by  a  humble  wicket  to 
a  long,  flagged  quadrangle,  wliere  ancient  cedar-trees 
shade  yellow-tiled  pavilions  and  stone  tablets  of  honor. 
Broad  marble  steps,  with  a  sloping  panel  between. 


KRIllSIl    ToriMST    IN    DlStUIISK. 


THE  TATAE  CITY  OF   KUBLAI  KHAN  97 

carved  in  high  relief  with  noble  dragons,  lead  to  the 
grand  terrace  or  platform  on  which  the  great  red 
temple,  or  memorial  building,  stands.  The  crowd 
lags,  holds  back  at  the  terrace  steps,  and  when  the 
guardian  unlocks  and  swings  open  the  double-latticed 
doors,  one  treads  the  vast,  columned  hall  in  silence- 
something  of  dignity,  splendor,  and  impressiveness  to 
be  enjoyed  in  Peking  at  last,  without  filth,  insistent 
squalor,  and  insulting  epithets  offending  one's  every 
sense.  Massive  teak  columns  tower  to  the  shadowy, 
paneled  ceiling,  thick  coir  mattings  cover  the  stone 
floor,  and  behind  the  altar-table  is  the  red  wooden 
shrine  containing  the  tiny,  sacred  tablet  of  Confucius. 
The  tablets  of  Mencius  and  the  lesser  sages  are  ranged 
on  each  side,  and  votive  tablets  from  the  worshiping 
emperors,  who  have  paid  homage  to  China's  greatest 
teacher,  are  hung  around  the  dark-red  walls.  There 
is  such  space,  simplicity,  quiet,  and  solemnity  within 
this  memorial  hall  that  one  recognizes  it  as  the  very 
sacred  spot  where  even  the  gabbling  gate-keepers 
are  subdued  and  reverent,  where  the  rabble  cannot 
pursue,  where  the  hideous  Chinese  voice  is  stilled.- 
Yet,  they  let  me  place  my  camera  on  the  altar-table 
and  photograph  the  sacred  tablet,  the  soul  of  Con- 
fucius, the  host  of  the  high  altar  in  the  cathedral  of 
the  one  living  faith  of  the  empire  !    ; 

On  one  visit  to  the  Confucian  Temple  we  found  a 
great  crowd  jeering  around  a  tourist  in  the  gateway 
whom  the  gate-keeper  would  not  admit  at  any  price. 
This  elderly  Englishman,  with  an  unwonted  consider- 
ation for  .the  sensibilities  of  an  alien  people,  had 
thought  to  don  Chinese  dress  that  he  might  go  about 


98  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

unobserved.  Top-boots,  a  flowing  blue  silk  gown,  and 
a  deer-stalker's  cap,  with  a  long  raven-black  queue  at- 
tached with  a  safety-pin,  made  a  combination  to  which 
his  rosy  English  face  and  stubby  white  hair  added  a 
last  contradictory  touch.  The  guardians  evidently 
took  him  for  a  lunatic,  and  the  people  could  not  be 
blamed  for  their  roars  of  laughter.  When  he  showed 
himself  in  his  "  disguise  "  at  the  Lama  Temple  a  crowd 
of  holy  men  fell  upon  him,  took  his  money,  despoiled 
him  of  the  gown  and  the  queue,  and  left  him  to  walk 
home  bareheaded. 

We  were  baited  for  a  Chinese  holiday,  however, 
when  we  went  out,  and  by  a  narrow  lane  reached  the 
back  gate  of  the  adjoining  Hall  of  Classics.  Again 
we  bargained  and  passed  bank-notes  through  cracks  in 
the  gate,  and  a  mob  of  a  hundred  vicious  young 
ragamuffins  pushed  in  with  us,  somersaulting  over  the 
grass  and  the  marble  rails.  They  shrieked  and  cat- 
called in  the  cloisters  as  they  leaped  on  and  over  the 
tall  stone  tablets  on  which  all  the  nine  books  of  the 
most  ancient  classics  are  cut  in  permanent,  unalter- 
able, everlasting  text,  a  stone  library  founded  by  the 
great  Emperor  Kienlung.  Within  the  south  gate  of 
imperial  entrance  there  is  first  a  broad  green  lawn, 
with  tiny  pavilions  or  temples  at  each  side,  and  fa- 
cing it  a  noble  brick-and-stone  pailow  of  three  arches, 
half  covered  with  glazed  green  and  yellow  tiles  and 
ornamental  panels— the  most  splendid  and  glittering 
monument  that  learning  could  wish  for.  Its  arches 
frame  a  charming  picture  of  the  central  pavilion 
within  a  marble-bridged  pond,  the  audience-hall  where 
the  Emperor  sits  in  state  on  a  red  throne  similar  to  the 


SUN-DIAL  AT  THE   UAI.L   01'  C;LASSICS. 


THE  TATAR  CITY  OF   KUBLAI  KHAN  101 

greater  throne  and  dais  of  his  palace  when  he  comes  in 
state  to  confer  the  great  literary  degrees.  There  is  an 
interesting  old  sun-dial  on  the  terrace  at  the  back  of 
the  quadrangle,  which,  like  all  Chinese  dials,  has  its 
summsr  face  to  tell  one  the  standard  time  until  the 
22d  of  September,  and  the  nether  winter  face  to  mark 
the  hours  until  the  22d  of  March. 

The  Drum-tower  and  the  Bell-tower  in  that  north- 
ern quarter  are  two  splendid  Mongol  keeps  rebuilt  by 
Kienlung,  one  sheltering  the  monster  bell  of  Yunglo 
that  used  to  strike  the  curfew,  and  the  other  holding 
a  great  barrel  drum  that  bangs  the  hours  in  good 
Mongol  fashion.  They  are  in  a  deserted  neighbor- 
hood—deserted until  a  foreigner  climbs  down  from  a 
cart.  Then  a  dense  population  springs  up  from  the 
ground  and  the  encircling  mud-puddles,  and  to  pro- 
duce a  camera  doubles  the  mob  as  suddenly  as  if  that 
second  mass  of  spectators  had  fallen  from  the  clouds. 
There  is  positively  no  admittance  to  these  interesting 
old  towers,  and  one  is  easily  consoled  by  believing  that 
the  drum,  the  clepsydra,  and  the  burning  sandal  sticks 
that  measure  the  hours  are  not  worth  the  eifort  of 
seeing.  One  becomes  cautious  and  judicial  in  Peking, 
weighs  the  sight,  and  considers  whether  the  lion  is 
worth  looking  at  before  he  worries  and  haggles  and 
pays  and  draws  an  unfeeling  crowd  around  him. 


VIII 

IMPERIAL,   PURPLE   PEKING 

I  HE  great  south  gate  in  the  continuous 
wall  surrounding  the  Imperial  or  Yel- 
low City  is  the  main  gate  of  the  palace, 
a  state  entrance  used  only  by  the  Em- 
peror on  ceremonial  occasions.  One 
passes  from  the  Tatar  to  the  Imperial  City  by  gates 
in  the  east,  west,  and  north  walls,  each  a  towering  red 
Mongol  keep,  whose  curving  gables  break  the  nine- 
mile  circuit  of  the  Imperial  City's  yellow-tiled  walls. 
Each  gateway  is  a  busy  center  of  city  life,  where 
beggars  wail,  grandees  strut,  and  mandarins,  generals, 
eunuchs,  and  bannermen,  on  foot  and  horse,  in  carts 
and  chairs  and  litters,  are  continually  passing  to  and 
fro.  One  is  nearest  the  actual  palace  demesne  at  the 
north  or  "  back  gate,"  where^  at  the  barracks  of  Man- 
chu  bannermen  and  the  headquarters  of  the  governor 
of  Peking,  the  Ti-tu,  or  "  Mandarin  of  the  Nine 
Gates,"  all  municipal  and  civic  authority  centers.  In 
that  intimate  Imperial  City  there  are  streets  of  pal- 
aces, public  offices  and  buildings,  temples  and  resi- 
dences with  imposing  gateways  and  roofs  of  colored 

102 


IMPERIAL,    PURPLE  PEKING  103 

tiles.  There  are  even  shops  here  in  this  imperial 
ward,  although  the  Manehu  is  distinctly  forbidden  to 
engage  in  trade,  and  is  gathered  for  defense  closely 
around  the  yellow  clay  and  yellow-tiled  walls  of  the 
Sacred  Purple  Forbidden  City  of  the  Son  of  Heaven, 
the  citadel  in  its  midst. 

From  the  broad  avenue  leading  between  the  ban- 
nermen's  barracks  one  looks  directly  upon  the  green 
hills  and  summer-houses  of  the  Emperor's  Pei-ta, 
or  Northern  Garden.  One  may  drive  beside  the 
low  garden  wall  for  a  mile,  admiring  the  green 
Meishan,  the  Prospect  or  Coal  Hill,  which  Marco  Polo 
and  Friar  Odoric  both  described.  This  garden  was 
laid  out  by  Kublai  Khan,  and  the  Mongol  emperors 
stored  up  supplies  of  coal  against  a  possible  siege 
and  turfed  them  over  into  landscape  ornaments.  The 
Meishan  is  between  one  hundred  and  fifty  and  one 
hundred  and  sixty  feet  in  height,  and,  overtopping 
the  palace  roof,  sufBces  to  ward  off  all  evil  influences 
from  the  north.  The  Ming  emperors  built,  or  more 
probably  rebuilt,  the  fanciful  round^  square,  and  hex- 
agonal red  pavilions  on  the  hills,  and  near  one  of 
these  temples  or  kiosks  the  last  of  the  Mings  hanged  ^ 
himself  from  an  acacia-tree  when  the  victorious  Man- 
ehu general  had  captured  the  city  and  seized  the 
throne.  With  proper  respect  for  a  sovereign  ruler, 
the  Manehu  usurper  loaded  the  offending  tree  with 
chains,  as  punishment  for  its  part  in  an  imperial 
crime.  One  hilltop  pa%dlion  holds  a  life-size  statue 
of  Kanghsi,  and  another  is  reserved  for  the  lying  in 
state  of  imperial  corpses. 

In  the  days  when  the  religion  of  the  lotus  was  law, 


104  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

this  beautiful  park  and  the  adjoining  Western  Garden 
with  its  great  lake  were  adorned  by  temples,  pagodas, 
and  dagobas.  One  temple  still  holds  a  colossal  golden 
image  of  Buddha,  and  another  shelters  ten  thousand 
bronze  images  of  the  All-Knowing  and  his  attendant 
bodhisattv'as.  There  is  a  bronze  pagoda  covered 
with  myriad  images  and  reliefs,  and  a  tall  white 
dagoba,  that  one  sees  above  the  tree-tops,  holds  the 
ashes  of  a  living  buddha  who  died  at  Peking.  There 
are  monasteries  in  the  palace  gardens  where  legions 
of  sleek  lamas  used  to  minister  to  imperial  souls,  and 
another  of  Yunglo's  colossal  bells  swings  unrung, 
voiceless,  in  its  noble  tower.  The  gi'eat  religion  is  as 
dead  within  the  palace  walls  as  elsewhere,  the  temples 
and  shrines  are  only  relics  and  garden  ornaments, 
and  the  imperial  folk  have  few  spiritual  needs  that 
the  great  Fo  can  meet. 

The  Northern  Garden  is  separately  walled,  and  is 
divided  from  the  actual  palace  inclosure  by  a  broad 
highway,  continued  as  a  causeway  or  long  bridge 
across  its  lake.  Until  quite  recently  this  road  and 
bridge  were  freely  used  as  a  direct  route  from  one 
side  of  the  Imperial  City  to  the  other.  For  more  than 
twenty  years  foreign  residents  greatly  delighted  in 
this  one  green  and  beautiful  prospect,  this  one  breath 
of  fresh,  imperial,  purple  air,  and  drove  frequently 
over  the  marble  bridge  of  nine  arches  and  picnicked 
in  the  deserted  pleasure-grounds  around  the  lake. 
Suddenly  the  gates  were  slammed  in  their  faces,  and 
no  foreigners  were  permitted  to  pass  through.  At 
the  sight  of  a  foreigner  looking  from  a  passing  cart 
now,  the   guardians  run  to  shut  the  gates,  and   to 


BIPERIAL,   PURPLE  PEKING  105 

emphasize  their  spite  hold  boards  against  the  cracks 
long  after  the  alien  has  gone  his  way. 

Maps,  plans,  and  detailed  descriptions  of  each 
building  in  the  palace  inclosure  may  be  bought  at 
any  Chinese  book-store,  and  Dr.  Edkins  has  condensed 
the  facts  in  his  chapters  in  Dr.  Williamson's  "  Jour- 
nejs  in  North  China."  The  Jesuit  fathers,  who  lived 
beside  and  overlooked  the  palace  gardens,  and  had 
freest  range  of  the  forbidden  purple  precincts  in 
Kanghsi's  and  Kienlung's  time,  wrote  full  accounts 
of  the  city,  the  suburban  and  the  hunting  palaces,  and 
of  the  life  that  went  on  within  them.  They  painted 
albums  of  landscape  views  and  of  palace  occupants  in 
their  gorgeous  costumes,  and  copies  are  easily  bought 
to-day. 

From  the  city  wall  one  can  trace  and  identify  the 
yellow-tiled  roof  of  each  of  the  pavilions  of  high- 
sounding  titles,  as  they  stretch  away  from  the  great 
south  front  gate  for  two  miles  back  to  the  fairy 
pavilions  on  the  green  Meishan.  Friar  Odoric  de- 
scribed the  palace  interiors,  even  to  Kublai  Khan's 
great,  dragon-carved  jade  punch-bowl,  which,  stand- 
ing "two  paces  high"  and  hooped  with  gold,  was 
always  filled  with  drink,  with  golden  goblets  standing 
round.  The  storehouses,  magazines  of  silk,  furs,  tea, 
clothing,  jewels,  and  the  treasury  of  gold  and  silver 
ingots  are  on  the  west  side  of  the  main  avenue  from 
the  south  gate,  with  lesser  storehouses  of  reserve 
clothing,  drugs,  and  perfumes  on  the  east  side.  On 
the  east  side  shines  the  green-tiled  roof  of  the  Impe- 
rial Library,  the  chief  treasure  of  all  China.  This 
precious   and   now  unique  collection  of  books  was 


106  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

brought  together  by  that  august  patron  of  letters, 
the-  Emperor  Kienlung,  and  duplicate  libraries  were 
deposited  at  the  Summer  Palace  outside  the  city,  at 
the  hunting  palace  of  Jehol  in  Mongolia,  and  at  the 
old  ancestral  palace  of  the  Manchus  at  Mukden.  The 
library  at  the  Summer  Palace  was  burned  by  the  allies 
in  1860,  the  Jehol  palace  has  not  been  used  for  forty 
years,  and  Mukden's  library  is  farther  beyond  imperial 
ken.  Earlier  imperial  libraries  treasured  at  Hang- 
chow  and  on  Golden  Island,  below  Nanking,  were 
destroyed  during  the  Taiping  rebellion. 

Driving  along  the  west  wall  of  the  palace,  one  may 
see  the  upper  portion  of  the  red  palace  wliicli  the 
Emperor  Kienlung  built  for  his  Mohammedan  wife, 
a  Turkestan  princess,  whose  religion  he  regarded  to 
the  extent  of  adding  this  unusual  second  story  to  a 
dwelling,  in  order  that  she  might  look  upon  the  Mo- 
hammedan mosque  across  the  way.  Her  face  was 
turned  to  Mecca  and  to  Turkestan  at  the  same  time— 
"the  liome-looking  building,"  the  Chinese  called  it. 
Near  this  little  Turkish  seraglio  rise  the  gables  of  the 
one-story  "Palace  of  Earth's  Repose,"  which  the 
Ming  emperors  built  for  the  use  of  dowager  em- 
presses, and  where  Tsze  Hsi  An,  the  despotic  ruler 
for  forty  years,  is  supposed  to  have  passed  her  time. 
The  immediate  dwelling,  the  intimate  living-rooms 
of  the  Emperor,  are  in  this  northwest  corner  of  the 
palace  inclosure,  nearest  the  women's  quarter,  and  a 
high-walled  passage  leads  from  this  private  quarter 
to  the  Si  Yuen,  or  Western  Garden,  a  pleasure-ground 
disused  as  long  as  the  tower  of  the  Jesuit  church 
overlooked   it.      The   residence   palace   of   the   first 


IMPERIAL,  PURPLE  PEKING  107 

Mongol  emperors  stood  in  this  western  pleasure- 
ground,  but  earthquake,  fire,  and  the  ravages  of 
the  first  Manchu  conqueror  left  few  of  the  Mongol 
buildings  standing.  The  Empress  visits  the  Western 
Garden  in  state  once  a  year  to  perform  the  ceremony 
of  feeding  the  silkworms  at  the  so-called  Silk  Temple, 
and  a  few  lamas  tend  their  temples  and  maintain 
schools  in  the  garden.  The  famous  Pavilion  of 
Purple  Light  is  in  this  outer  garden  also— a  build- 
ing where  Korean,  Mongol,  and  Loochoo  envoys 
used  to  be  entertained  with  feasts  and  games  when 
they  had  offered  their  annual  tribute,  quite  as  the 
Great  Father  at  Washington  used  to  receive  delega- 
tions of  noble  red  men,  give  them  presents  of  blankets 
and  tobacco,  and  pretend  to  whiff  at  the  pipe  of  peace. 
Ignominious  audience  was  granted  there  to  other  outer 
barbarians  and  savages— the  ministers  and  envoys  of 
the  great  powers  of  Europe— when  they  clamored  for 
audiences  in  1874  and  in  1891. 

No  sovereign  lives  in  such  seclusion  and  mystery 
as  the  Emperor  of  China,  and  the  least  is  known  in 
the  general  foreign  circle  at  Peking  of  what  goes  on 
within  the  palace,  of  what  affects  the  lives  of  the 
eight  tliousand  people  who  live  and  move  within  the 
four-mile  circuit  of  those  yellow,  dragon-tiled  walls. 
Everything  connected  with  this  Tranquil  Palace  of 
Heaven,  the  actual  imperial  dwelling,  has  a  tan- 
talizing fascination  for  the  outsider  in  Peking,  indif- 
ferently and  scornfully  as  some  may  regard  it  all. 
Half  of  the  grotesque,  absurd  accounts  of  palace  life 
are  manifestly  untrue,  but  the  most  truthful  ones  are 
often  the  most  absurd,  as  witness  the  edicts  and  me- 


108  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

I  morials  daily  published  in  the  official  Peking  Gazette, 
oldest  newspaper  in  the  world.  Nothing  in  comic  opera, 
in  the  maddest  burlesque  or  extravaganza,  equals  the 
bombast  and  grandiloquence  of  some  of  the  petitions 
and  memorials  it  prints,  the  maudlin  raptures  and  ex- 
hortations in  the  name  of  filial  piety,  nor  yet  the  puerile 
edicts  signed  by  the  "Vermilion  Pencil,"  i.  e.,  the  Em- 
peror, whose  long-drawn  bathos  ends  with  a  dra- 
matic "  Respect  this."  There  have  even  been  edicts 
commanding  grasshoppers  to  retire  from  stricken 
provinces,  and  the  annual  inundation  of  the  Yellow 
River  produces  a  crop  of  imperial  inanities. 

Where  there  is  so  much  mystery,  imagination  at  once 
supplies  material,  and  almost  everything  one  hears 
in  Peking  about  the  most  exalted  Pekingese  circle 
is  immediately  contradicted  or  disproved.  Except  for 
the  envoys  and  their  suites  on  ceremonial  occasions. 
Prince  Henry  of  Prussia,  the  Russian  princes,  and  the 
ladies  of  the  diplomatic  corps,  the  only  foreigners  be- 
lieved to  have  penetrated  the  forbidden  realm  during 
the  nineteenth  century  were  one  or  two  physicians, 
an  electrical  engineer,  and  some  musicians,  and  these 
last  were  carried  in  and  out  in  closed  chairs,  past 
blank  walls,  with  everything  screened  from  view  save 
what  pertained  to  their  immediate  errand. 

It  is  known  that  the  palace  awakens  at  twilight  and 
is  busiest  when  graveyards  yawn,  and  that  imperial 
owls  have  long  chosen  to  bestir  themselves  only  while 
their  toiling  millions  slept.  The  light  of  thousands 
\  of  vegetable- wax  candles,  sent  as  tribute  from  certain 
provinces,  has  given  way  to  the  blaze  of  incandescent 
bulbs,  and  steam-heat  is  said  to  have  been  introduced 


IMPERIAL,  PURPLE  PEKING  109 

in  the  Empress  Dowager's  quarters.  During  the 
years  of  the  Emperor  Kwangsu's  minority  he  seldom 
passed  the  city  walls,  but  after  he  ascended  the  throne 
and  the  Empress  Dowager  retired  to  her  suburban 
palace,  the  Emperor  often  made  visits  out  through 
the  northwest  gate  to  her  E-ho  Park  retreat,  and  a 
part  of  the  ruined  Summer  Palace  was  rebuilt  for  his 
imperial  pleasurings.  Much  of  his  time  was  taken  up 
with  state  worship,  and  whenever  he  was  about  to 
perform  annual  services  at  any  place  it  was  duly  an- 
nounced in  the  Peking  Gazette,  and  special  notice 
was  sent  to  each  legation,  in  order  that  no  foreigners 
should  venture  near  the  imperial  procession.  The 
route  was  always  curtained  and  lined  with  soldiers 
for  its  whole  length,  every  house-window  closed,  each 
door  guarded,  the  street  paved,  smoothed,  and  strewn 
with  fresh  sand.  Yet  every  foreigner  in  Peking  who 
cared  to  had  seen  an  imperial  procession  and  enjoyed 
a  good  look  at  Kwangsu,  the  Son  of  Heaven,  borne 
along  in  an  open  chair,  or  rather  canopied  platform, 
by  eighteen  or  twenty  bearers.  There  were  always 
bannermen  and  house-owners  to  be  bribed,  and  once 
the  Chien-men  tower  guards  were  surprised  and 
bought  up  by  an  energetic  Englishman  bent  on  see- 
ing the  Emperor  and  his  train  proceeding  by  torch- 
light to  the  New  Year  ceremonies  at  the  Temple  of 
Heaven.  All  described  the  dragou  countenance  of 
Kwangsu  as  a  pale  and  sickly  one,  the  glance  timid 
rather  than  terrifying,  and  the  lonely  figure  in  its 
simple  dark  robes  extinguished  by  the  blaze  of  color, 
the  sheen  of  tinsel  and  gold,  in  the  uniforms  of  his 
suite.     Even  his  chair-bearers  wore  bright-red  and 


110  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

yellow  satin  tunics  close-belted  at  the  waist,  and 
strings  of  attendants  in  long  yellow  satin  gowns  with 
rainbow  borders  in  wave  patterns  dazzled  the  peeping 
eye.  One  tourist,  looking  through  a  curtain-slit  at 
the  imperial  cortege,  reported  that  the  gorgeous  robes 
of  the  Emperoi*'s  train  were  as  shabby  and  greasy,  as 
dirty  and  threadbare,  as  the  worst  that  the  peddlers 
ever  offer  for  sale.  Tribute  elephants  from  Cochin 
China  were  part  of  every  imperial  train  until  fifteen 
years  ago,  when  the  supply  diminished  as  more  of 
the  elephant  country  was  lopped  off  for  French  colo- 
nies, and  the  ill  temper  of  the  few  old  animals  remain- 
ing in  the  imperial  stables  made  them  a  danger  to  all 
who  came  near.  One  mad  elephant  broke  away  from 
the  procession,  seized  a  woman  and  threw  her  over 
the  roof  of  a  house,  and  then  threw  a  mule  and  cart 
into  a  doorway. 

When  the  city  gates  are  closed  at  sunset  they  can 
only  be  opened  by  direct  imperial  command,  save  the 
great  Chien-men,  between  the  Chinese  and  the  Tatar 
City,  which  is  opened  for  a  half-hour  every  midnight 
to  admit  the  official  carts  and  chairs  and  mounted 
mandarins  bound  for  the  palace.  The  Emperor 
Kwangsu  was  supposed  to  rise  for  his  day  at  two 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and,  after  the  rites  and  cere- 
monies, to  hold  councils  and  audiences,  receive  me- 
morials and  reports,  and  work  busily  until  after 
sunrise.  He  turned  to  relaxation  when  plebeian  day- 
light came,  and  went  wearily  to  bed  about  five  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon.  Audiences  were  set  for  the  grisly 
hour  just  before  dawn,  and  the  assembled  ministers 
usually  waited   sleepily  on   the    imperial   pleasure. 


IMPEKIAL,   PURPLE  PEKING  111 

Even  the  foreign  envoys  were  bidden  to  their  audi- 
ence in  the  ignoble  Pavilion  of  Purple  Light  at  six 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  as  to  a  French  military 
court  martial. 

The  Ti-tu,  or  military  governor  of  Peking,  the  Man- 
chu  Guardian  of  the  Nine  Gates,  does  not  open  the 
Chien-men  gate  nor  the  Imperial  City  gate  gratui- 
tously, nor  permit  any  one  to  traverse  the  palace 
approaches  freely.  All  who  enter  the  imperial,  purple 
precincts  must  pay  roundly  for  the  privilege.  Rennie 
relates  that  in  the  early  days  of  Canton  trade  the 
hoppo  of  that  port  was  expected  to  pay  the  Guardian 
of  the  Nine  Gates  at  the  rate  of  ten  thousand  taels 
for  each  year  of  office-holding.  One  hoppo  paid 
thirty- six  thousand  taels  after  three  and  a  half  years 
of  profitable  intendancy  in  the  south,  and  two  ver- 
milion checks  for  ten  thousand  taels  each  were  after- 
ward sent  out  from  the  palace  to  be  cashed  at  a  bank. 
The  hoppo's  salary  had  been  twenty-four  hundred  taels 
a  year.  Out  of  that  stipend  he  spent  eight  thousand 
taels  on  the  necessary  running  expenses  of  the  Canton 
yamun.  Leaving  Canton  with  three  hundred  thou- 
sand taels  as  his  savings,  haK  of  that  amount  went 
to  Peking  officials  before  the  hoppo  prostrated  him- 
self before  the  Emperor,  since  the  eunuchs  had  also  to 
be  remembered. 

In  recent  times,  Li  Hung  Chang  is  said  to  have 
disbursed  over  thirty  thousand  taels  in  connection 
with  the  one  imperial  interview  accorded  him  in  eight 
years— the  audience  which  preceded  his  departure 
for  the  Czar's  coronation.  At  such  audiences,  the 
highest  oificial  was  forced  to  prostrate  himself  and 


112  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

remain  on  hands  and  knees,  forehead  repeatedly 
touching  the  floor,  in  the  kotow  of  worship,  without 
daring  once  to  turn  an  eye  directly  on  the  dragon 
countenance.  When  Li  Hung  Chang  had  knelt  in 
that  attitude  on  a  cold  stone  floor  for  an  hour,  he  was 
unable  to  rise.  Eunuchs  lifted  him  up  and  assisted 
him  to  an  outer  room,  where  a  physician  restored  him 
sufficiently  to  permit  him  to  totter  to  his  chair  in  a  far- 
away court. 

Another  Pekingese  tale  tells  that,  on  his  return  from 
his  grand  tour  of  the  globe,  the  Empress  Dowager 
summoned  the  grand  secretary  Li  to  her  E-ho  palace 
in  the  suburbs,  and,  as  a  final  mark  of  favor,  he  was 
shown  the  improvements  and  restorations  she  had 
been  making.  The  eunuchs,  who  hate  him  as  only 
Manchus  can  hate  a  Chinese,  speciously  led  him  to  a 
quiet  arbor  to  rest,  and  plied  him  with  tea  and  pipes- 
all  in  a  sacred,  set-apart  pavilion  where  only  the 
dowager  dragon  herself  was  ever  expected  to  sit 
Then  the  eunuchs  denounced  him  for  trespass  and 
lese-majesty,  and  had  him  arrested— virtually  for 
walking  on  the  gi-ass— and  turned  over  to  the 
Board  of  Punishment,  which  has  absolute  power  of 
life  or  death  to  all  committed  to  it.  The  board  was 
a  unit  against  the  grand  secretar}',  whom  kings  and 
emperors  had  courted  and  presidents  of  republics 
had  run  after,  and  they  gladly  stripped  him  of  his 
yellow  riding-jacket,  of  his  button  aud  peacock 
feather,  and  the  worst  might  have  followed  but  for 
the  intercession  of  the  Empress  Dowager.  Li  Hung 
Chang  had  just  been  named  a  member  of  the  Board 
of  the  Tsung-li  Yainuu,  and  the  judges  decreed  that 


THK   VICEROY   1,1   HUNG  CHANW. 


IMPERIAL,   PURPLE   PEKING  115 

he  should  be  fined  the  half  of  a  year's  salary  as  final 
punishment.  As  the  services  of  this  great  man  were 
rated  as  worth  ninety  taels  a  year  to  the  state,  he 
was  mulcted  of  forty-five  taels,  or  about  thirty  dollars 
in  United  States  gold. 

The  Russian  envoy  at  Peking  had  expressly  indi- 
cated the  young  Manchu  princes  whom  it  was  desir- 
able to  have  attend  the  Czar's  coronation  ceremony 
and  be  impressed  for  all  time  with  definite  proofs  of 
Russia's  power  and  riches.  But  the  princes  refused 
to  go,  to  appear  as  vassals  or  tributaries  of  the  Czar, 
as  their  suspicious  minds  viewed  that  assembling  of 
princes  in  Moscow.  The  Russians  then  chose  Li  Hung 
Chang,  who  had  served  them  well  before,  and  deserved 
a  reward  and  an  incentive  for  the  future.  The  Man- 
chu enemies  of  the  grand  secretary,  who  hated  him 
for  the  disasters  attending  the  war  he  had  protested 
against  their  inviting,  hailed  the  idea  of  his  going 
abroad.  During  his  absence  they  expected  to  under- 
mine him  thoroughly,  never  dreaming  of  the  honors 
and  distinction  to  be  accorded  the  "  Grand  Old  Man 
of  China,"  the  absurdities  of  adulation  which  all 
Europe  and  America  were  to  heap  upon  a  deposed 
and  discredited  provincial  governor,  a  Chinese  poli- 
tician out  of  a  job.  They  were  dumfounded  and 
chagrined  when  reports  of  Li's  triumphal  progress 
reached  China,  and  the  cry  was  raised  that  the  great 
tourist  was  assuming  honors  due  a  sovereign,  that 
he  was  representing  himself  as  the  empire— that  La 
CJmie,  c^est  rnoi,  was  his  attitude.  The  United  States, 
not  first  among  Chinophile  countries  certainly,  and 
whose  regularly  accredited  ministers  at  Peking  have 


L^ 


/ 


116  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

received  but  the  scantiest  hospitality  and  very  little 
courtesy  from  the  individuals  directing  the  Chinese 
government,  spent  thirty  thousand  dollars  in  United 
States  gold  entertaining  this  passed  politician  and  ex- 
office-holder,  and  fairly  outdid  Europe  in  its  abject 
attitude  before  this  great  hypnotizer. 


IX 

THE   DECADENCE   OF  THE  MANCHUS 

[HEN  the  allied  armies  approached  Peking 
the  Emperor  Hienfung  and  his  court 
hastily  fled  from  the  Summer  Palace  as 
the  French  advance-guard  reached  it, 
to  Jehol,  the  hunting  palace  in  Mongolia, 
more  than  one  hundi-ed  miles  northeast  of  Peking. 
It  was  the  custom  of  the  Manchu  emperors  to  repair 
to  Jehol  each  year  for  a  season  of  hunting  and  vigor- 
ous outdoor  life,  for  relaxation  from  the  awful  tram- 
mels of  Peking  palace  etiquette.  With  the  decadence 
of  that  once  sturdy  race,  the  outing  to  Jehol  had  then 
been  omitted  for  more  than  forty  years,  nor  has  the 
court  revisited  Jehol  since  that  involuntary  outing  of 
1860.  Hienfung  remained  in  hiding  after  the  igno- 
minious peace  was  concluded  by  his  brother  Prince 
Kung,  and  died  at  Jehol  within  the  year,  when  his 
body  was  brought  to  Peking  and  laid  in  state  in  the 
pavilion  on  the  Meishan. 

The  Empress,  the  one  legal  widow  of  Hienfung,  had 
an  only  child,  a  daughter,  but  the  little  princess  could 
not  count  in  the  succession.   The  son  of  one  of  Hien- 

117 


118  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

fung's  inferior  wives,  the  child  of  a  concubine  of  the 
lowest  rank,  was  declared  heir  to  the  throne  in  the 
Emperor's  last  edict.  The  mother  of  Hienfung  was 
at  Jehol  at  the  time  of  the  Emperor's  death,  but  this 
Empress  Dowager  seemed  to  have  had  no  part  in  the 
dramatic  events,  the  fierce  intrigues  and  cabals  that 
went  on  in  the  mountain  palace,  and  she  returned 
quietly  to  Peking  with  her  retinue  and  all  the  widows 
of  lesser  rank,  and  was  never  heard  of  by  the  outer 
circles.  The  guardianship  of  the  baby  Emperor 
Tungchih  had  been  left  to  a  board  of  princely  regents 
and  schemers  at  Jehol,  and  the  widow  of  Hieu- 
fung  and  the  mother  of  the  little  Tungchih  fled 
in  alarm  to  Prince  Kung,  as  they  saw  the  intrigues 
closing  around  them.  An  imperial  decree  raised  the 
fortunate  mother  of  Tungchih  to  the  relative  rank 
of  empress,  and  another  decree  made  this  "  Mother  of 
the  Sovereign,"  or  Tsze  Hsi  An,  the  Western  Empress, 
a  co-regent  with  the  *'  Mother  of  the  State,"  the  East- 
ern Empress,  or  legal  widow  of  Hienfung,  both  acting 
with  Prince  Kung.  The  two  empresses  entered  Pe- 
king together,  little  four-year-old  Tungchih  on  the  lap 
of  his  handsome  and  courageous  mother.  The  conspir- 
ator princes  were  seized  as  they  returned  from  Jehol 
and  put  to  death,  and  the  two  empresses  and  Prince 
Kung  ruled  together  amicably  for  the  dozen  years  of 
tlie  little  Emperor's  minority.  In  compliance  with  im- 
perial custom,  Tungchih  was  married  with  great  state 
and  splendor  in  1872,  and  at  the  age  of  seventeen  this 
child,  reared  in  the  harem,  with  harem  ideas  onl}-,  save 
for  the  dry  bones  of  the  classics  taught  him  in  the  deep 
palace  seclusion,  began  to  rule.     One  account  made 


THE  DECADENCE  OF   THE  MANCHUS  119 

him  out  a  weakling  and  a  debauchee  who  left  every- 
thing in  the  hands  of  the  eunuchs  and  degraded  and 
banished  Prince  Kung  when  he  remonstrated.  Another 
described  him  as  being  possessed  of  some  enlightened 
and  progressive  ideas,  as  having  resented  the  routine 
of  senseless  ceremonials  and  rites,  as  roaming  Peking 
in  disguise  and  righting  many  of  the  small  wrongs  of 
his  people,  and  it  was  said  that  he  and  his  high-spirited 
young  Empress  Ahluta  resented  the  constant  domina- 
tion and  overriding  of  their  wishes  by  Prince  Kung  and 
the  dowager  empresses.  There  were  wars  and  intrigues 
between  the  two  factions  at  court,  and  soon  the  asser- 
tive, troublesome  young  Emperor  died  of  smallpox  (no 
one  investigates  such  deaths),  and  his  independent 
young  Empress  Ahluta  quickly  and  mysteriously  fol- 
lowed. "  Fate  is  under  government  control  in  China," 
says  Mr.  Harold  Gorst,  significantly.  Disregarding  aU 
ordinary  rules  of  succession,  the  astute  empresses 
chose  and  named  as  the  Emperor  one  Kwangsu,  the 
four-year-old  son  of  Prince  Chun.  This  child,  being 
a  nephew  of  Hieufung  and  of  the  same  generation 
as  the  last  Emperor  Tungchih,  could  not  rightly  suc- 
ceed him  nor  worship  his  tablets ;  but  the  empresses 
disposed  of  that  objection  by  proclaiming  a  posthu- 
mous adoption  by  the  Emperor  Hienfung,  by  which 
Hienfung's  widows  logically  became  the  stepmothers 
of  his  adopted  son,  who  was  also  their  nephew. 
The  Emperor  Hienfung  had  died  ten  years  before  his 
adopted  son  Kwangsu  was  born,  but  this  break  in 
genealogy  had  no  weight  with  the  doughty  empresses, 
who  were  tasting  again  the  sweets  of  power. 

Etiquette  and  law  being  complied  with,  the  two 


120  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

stepmothers  embarked  upon  another  long  regency, 
Li  Hung  Chang  ingratiating  himself  with  the  regents 
at  a  time  when  a  palace  intrigue  to  displace  them 
was  checkmated  by  his  suddenly  marching  troops  to 
the  vicinity  of  Peking  to  support  their  authority— a 
lesson  not  lost  upon  the  shrewd  Western  Empress. 
The  Eastern  Empress,  the  less  assertive  and  forceful 
of  the  regents,  died  in  1881,  and  then  Tsze  Hsi  An, 
only  one  in  a  palace  full  of  concubines  twenty  years 
before,  began  her  real  reign,  became  sole  and  undis- 
puted ruler  of  more  than  three  hundred  millions  of 
people,  usurper  of  the  oldest  throne  and  autocrat  of 
the  largest  empire  of  one  people  on  earth,  tyrant  over 
one  fifth  of  the  human  race  and  one  tenth  of  the  area 
of  the  world— a  dizzy  pinnacle  for  one  of  the  sex  de- 
spised by  Buddha  and  Lao-tsze  and  Confucius,  in  the 
land  where  woman  is  held  in  least  esteem. 

Dowager  queens  and  empresses  have  been  court 
problems  and  national  difficulties  in  all  time,  but  the 
end  of  the  century  has  seen  them  become  the  special 
dilemmas  of  the  greatest  of  Eastern  and  Western  em- 
pires. A  conference  of  young  emperors,  with  the 
masterful  one  of  Germany  as  chief  adviser,  might 
have  spared  Kwangsu  his  freedom.  There  have  been 
empresses  regent  before  in  China,  but  no  precedents 
avail  for  comparison  with  tliis  masterful  Manchu, 
Tsze  Hsi  An,  the  most  remarkal)le  woman  sovereign 
and  the  most  unbridled  female  despot  the  world  has 
known.  She  rose  from  the  harem's  ranks,  unedu- 
cated, ignorant  of  })ublic  affairs;  but  by  sheer  ability, 
by  her  own  wits,  will,  and  shrewdness,  she  attained 
the  supreme  power.     Hers  is  the  greatest  of  personal 


THE  DECADENCE   OF   THE  MANCHUS  121 

triumphs,  her  strength  of  mind  and  force  of  char- 
acter and  dominant  personality  having  won  every 
step ;  centuries  of  precedent  and  all  the  shackles  of 
Oriental  etiquette  overborne  by  her  masterful  strat- 
egy and  remorseless  will.  Her  enemies  have  fallen 
away,  sickened  and  died,  and  scattered  as  chaff ;  no 
one  has  opposed  her  will  and  survived ;  no  plot  or 
intrigue  has  availed  against  her ;  no  conspirator  has 
found  her  unarmed  or  off  her  guard ;  and  hers  has 
been  a  charmed,  relentless,  terrible  life. 

When  Kwangsu  had  attained  the  age  of  sixteen, 
his  stepmother  and' aunt,  the  Empress  Regent,  threw 
herself  with  ardor  into  match-making  or  wife-choosing 
for  a  second  time.  The  august  Tsze  Hsi  An  attended 
to  the  marrying  of  her  nephew  as  zealously  as  she 
had  married  off  her  own  son  seventeen  years  before,  the 
poor  little  bride  and  bridegroom  being  equally  pawns 
and  puppets  in  her  hands.  She  summoned  all  the 
daughters  of  noble  Manchu  families,  as  before,  but 
many  evaded  the  summons.  The  examination  and 
weeding  out  of  candidates  went  on  for  nearly  two 
years,  narrowing  down  from  three  hundred  original 
entries  to  thirty  picked  beauties,  then  to  ten  precious 
pearls,  and  last  to  the  one  Yehonala,  queen  rose  in  the 
Manchu  garden  of  roses,  and  daughter  of  the  Empress 
Regent's  own  brother ;  whereby  the  invincible  dowager 
showed  her  skill  again,  and  kept  imperial  affairs  in  the 
family,  despite  Kwangsu's  preference  for  another. 

The  unsuccessful  candidates  at  the  first  matrimo- 
nial examination,  the  hundreds  of  rejected  aspirants 
for  the  throne,  are  always  consoled  by  rolls  of  silk 
and  splendid  gifts ;  and  then  the  two  inferior  wives  of 


122  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

the  first  rank,  the  twenty-seven  of  the  second  order, 
and  the  eighty-one  of  the  third  class  are  chosen  from 
these  same  expectant  empresses.  This  Oriental  in- 
stitution is  as  fixed  and  is  regulated  by  as  strict  rule 
and  ceremony  as  any  other  thing  about  the  court. 
Friar  Odoric  found  Kublai  Khan  sitting  in  state,  with 
the  first  real  wife  or  empress  at  his  left,  and  two  in- 
ferior wives  a  step  lower  down.  All  of  these  impe- 
rial favorites  have  their  distinctive  dress  and  marks 
of  rank,  their  particular  coronals  of  flowers,  their 
symbolic  plastrons  embroidered  on  their  coats.  Fa- 
ther Ripa  describes  the  Emperor  Kanghsi  moving 
about  the  grounds,  studying  and  reading  in  the  pavil- 
ions in  the  Summer  Palace  and  in  the  Jehol  gardens, 
always  surrounded  by  groups  of  women.  Herr  von 
Brandt,  who  was  German  minister  for  so  many  years 
at  Peking,  has  published  a  German  transcript  of  the 
memoirs  of  one  of  these  supernumerary  wives  or 
palace  ladies,  which  gives  some  idea  of  the  life  and 
the  gilded  miseries  of  those  women,  widowed,  but  re- 
maining still  secluded  when  the  Emperor  dies,  cut 
off  from  their  own  families,  and  sedulously  excluded 
from  all  part  in  the  court  life  of  the  sovereign  who 
succeeds.  Only  a  Tsze  Hsi  An  could  lift  herself  from 
such  an  estate  and  escape  the  penalties  of  plural  im- 
perial widowhood. 

The  Emperor  Kwangsu  had  no  interest  in  his  own 
wedding,  and  heeded  little  the  teachings  of  the  two 
women  "  professors  of  matrimony  "  duly  assigned  him 
in  preparation  for  the  long-drawn-out,  awesome  cere- 
mony. The  same  order  of  formalities,  the  processions 
to  and  fro  with  gifts  and  tablets  and  golden  name- 


THE  DECADENCE   OF   THE   MANCHUS  138 

cards,  and  finally  the  torch-light  procession  escorting 
the  bride  to  the  palace  in  her  gorgeous  red  wedding- 
chair,  were  followed  as  at  the  wedding  of  Tungchih 
in  1872.  After  the  little  Yehonala  disappeared  with 
her  paraphernalia  into  the  palace  gates,  little  was 
heard  of  her.  The  Emperor  was  indifferent  to  the 
pliant  and  pretty  niece  whom  the  stepmother  em- 
press aunt  had  chosen  for  him  in  place  of  the  bride 
he  wanted,  only  to  fasten  the  hampering  family 
chains  and  claims  the  more  closely  around  him. 

It  is  said  that  there  are  three  thousand  eunuchs  on 
the  palace  staff  to  watch  and  guard  and  wait  on  the 
empresses  and  the  great  company  of  lesser  wives  and 
widows  in  the  palace— repulsive  creatures  in  gorgeous 
garments,  often  to  be  met  at  the  foreign  shops  in 
Legation  Street  and  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  east 
palace  gate.  Some  of  them  have  been  slaves  or  pris- 
oners of  war,  or  were  bought  from  their  parents  for 
such  palace  service;  some  retire  with  old  age,  and 
often  with  fortunes,  since  they  do  all  the  palace  pur- 
chasing. There  is  a  special  cemetery  for  the  eunuchs 
in  the  northwest  part  of  the  city,  where  the  graves 
are  tended,  incense  burned,  and  the  tablets  worshiped 
by  pious  ones  of  the  pahice  fraternity.  The  eunuchs 
have  been  in  aud  at  the  bottom  of  every  palace  in- 
trigue and  crime  for  some  nineteen  centuries.  Kanghsi 
and  other  sovereigns  tried  to  suppress  them,  to  restrict 
their  numbers  and  authority,  but  in  vain.  One  of 
the  first  acts  of  the  empresses  regent  in  1861  was  to 
punish  and  deport  the  eunuchs  who  had  taken  part 
in  the  intrigues  at  Jeliol,  and  eunuchs  went  to  the 
block  after  the  coup  d'etat  of  1898 ;  but  the  cliief  of 


124  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

the  eunuchs  is  still  the  power  at  court,  the  one  behind 
the  throne,  to  be  placated  and  feared  by  all. 

No  individual  in  the  empire  had  less  liberty  of  ac- 
tion than  the  lonely  Kwangsu  during  the  few  years 
he  went  through  the  form  of  ruling.  Tied  down  by 
the  ponderous  etiquette  of  his  station,  he  could  neither 
live  nor  move  of  his  own  volition.  Every  act  from 
birth  to  death,  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night,  in  the 
life  of  a  Chinese  emperor  is  prescribed  by  custom 
and  regulated  by  minute  rules ;  any  deviation  para- 
lyzes and  alarms  the  retinue.  Yet,  except  for  the  bur- 
den and  forms  of  sovereignty,  Kwangsu  was  a  puppet 
and  a  minor  even  after  lie  had  married  and  had  as- 
cended the  dragon  throne.  The  Empress  Dowager,  in 
the  assumed  retirement  of  E-ho  Park,  still  did  it  all ; 
still  terrorized  and  directed,  and  issued  edicts  which 
the  hypnotized  one  of  the  Vermilion  Pencil,  protest- 
ing, signed,  and  sometimes  never  saw  at  all.  By  the 
specious  pleas  of  filial  devotion  she  lured  him  to  re- 
peated visits  to  her  beautiful  retreat  at  a  time  when 
her  influence  had  waned  and  the  young  Emperor  was 
seeking  a  means  of  ridding  himself  of  such  petticoat 
tyranny.  There  were  quarrels  with  Prince  Kung,  and 
the  faithful  old  guardian  was  exiled  from  court  for 
years,  and  all  the  advisers  of  progress  were  degraded 
or  disposed  of  less  happily. 

One  great  statesman,  Liu  Min  Chan,  dying,  left  a 
memorial  to  the  throne  which  he  would  not  have 
dared  to  present  in  life.  The  old  general  urged  re- 
forms, railroads,  and  Western  learning,  and  in  a  few 
paragraphs  wrote  a  warning  that  sliould  have  been 
kept  always  before  the  imperial  eyes : 


THE  DECADENCE   OF   THE  MANCHUS  125 

"  We  feel  her  [Russia's]  grip  on  our  throat  and  her  --^ 
fist  upon  our  back,  and  our  contact  with  her  is  a  source 
of  perpetual  uneasiness  to  our  hearts  and  minds.  But 
our  long  season  of  weakness  and  inaction  disables  us 
from  making  a  show  of  strength,  and  our  only  alterna- 
tive, therefore,  is  to  bear  patiently  insult  and  obloquy. 
When  a  quarrel  occurs  we  have  to  yield  to  her  de- 
mands and  make  a  compromise  regardless  of  money, 
in  order  to  avert  the  dangers  of  war.  .  .  . 

"  Now,  Japan  is  an  extremely  small  country — like  a 
pill.  Her  rulers,  however,  have  adopted  Western 
mechanical  arts;  and  relying  on  her  possession  of 
railways,  she  attempts  now  and  again  to  be  arrogant, 
like  a  mantis  when  it  assumes  an  air  of  defiance,  and 
to  despise  China,  and  gives  us  no  small  amount  of 
trouble  on  the  smallest  pretext. 

''  The  reasons  why  Russia  is  overbearing  and  Japan 
underrates  us  are  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  China 
has  only  one  corner  of  her  vast  possessions  protected, 
is  afraid  to  face  difficulties,  and  is  incapable  of  rous- 
ing her  energies  because  possessed  of  an  inordinately 
pacific  disposition." 

Others  felt  the  same,  but  dared  not  speak.  The 
young  Emperor's  interest  in  foreign  people  and  ways 
was  stilled  and  thwarted,  and  the  most  impossible 
ideas  of  foreigners  were  conveyed  to  him.  The  for- 
eign envoys,  who  had  to  wait  through  another  long 
minority  before  having  audience  with  the  sovereign 
to  whom  they  were  accredited,  had  to  insist  strenu- 
ously before  that  small  courtesy  was  granted.  Tung- 
chih's  famous   audience  of   1873,  the  first  occasion 


126  CHINA:    THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

upon  which  any  foreigner  in  this  century  had  gazed 
upon  the  dragon  countenance,  was  held  in  the  Pavilion 
of  Purple  Light  in  the  detached  Western  Garden,  with 
the  deliberate  intention  of  belittling  the  foreign  rep- 
resentatives in  Chinese  eyes— a  coarse  sort  of  practical 
joke.  The  same  insult  was  repeated  to  the  supine 
envoys  by  Kwangsu  in  1891,  when  the  ministers  again 
waited  in  a  cold  tent  at  daylight,  and  when  ushered 
into  the  Pavilion  of  Purple  Light  found  the  Emperor 
seated  cross-legged  like  a  Turk  on  a  broad  arm-chair, 
with  a  low  table  before  him.  They  themselves  were 
not  allowed  to  lay  their  addresses  on  that  table  before 
the  nodding  automaton,  but  handed  them  to  an  officer 
who  did  it  for  them.  After  this  second  ceremony, 
the  diplomats,  weighing  and  appreciating  the  mean- 
ing of  each  incident,  and  being  very  wroth,  vowed 
one  and  all  never  to  put  themselves  in  such  position 
in  such  a  hall  of  humiliation  again.  The  Chinese 
and  the  Manchus  alike  have  such  a  genius  for  hypno- 
tizing diplomatic  folk  unused  to  Asiatic  character 
that  such  audiences  might  have  continued  to  tickle 
the  Chinese  sense  of  the  humorous  for  many  years 
but  for  the  surprises  of  the  Japanese  war.  That  war 
and  its  train  of  disasters  dulled  the  sense  of  humor 
in  court  circles,  suppressed  the  Empress  Dowager  for 
a  season,  and  left  her  under  a  cloud  of  humiliation 
and  unpopularity. 


TSZE   HSI   AN   THE   GREAT 

|0  break  tlie  tedium  of  her  life  without 
visible  power,  to  keep  herself  in  sight, 
and  to  please  her  insatiable  vanity,  the 
Empress  Dowager  jumped  her  age  for- 
ward a  few  years,  and  began  prepara- 
tions to  celebrate  worthily  her  sixtieth  birthday,  that 
age  of  especial  honor  in  China,  and  in  October,  1894, 
she  expected  to  rival  and  surpass  the  celebration  of  the 
sixtieth  birthday  of  the  Emperor  Kienlung's  mother. 
Buildings  were  reconstructed  in  the  suburban  plea- 
sure-grounds she  had  chosen  for  her  own,  and  a  broad, 
level  stone  road,  equal  to  the  old  highways,  was  built 
out  from  the  new  northwest  gate  of  the  Tatar  City 
to  her  palace  gates.  Against  the  advice  of  Li  Hung 
Chang  and  of  every  one  who  knew  the  strength  of 
Japan  and  remembered  what  foreign  armies  have 
done  in  China,  the  Empress  Dowager  and  her  reac- 
tionary Manchus  urged  and  provoked  the  war  with 
Japan.  She  wanted  the  spoils  and  trophies  of  war 
for  her  birthday  triumph,  to  have  the  Emperor  of 
Japan  and  a  few  captives  brought  her  in  cages.    It  was 

127 


128  CHINA:  THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

she  who  inspired  the  wording  of  the  Chinese  declara- 
tion of  war,  a  piece  of  inflated  verbiage,  long  drawn 
out,  inane,  coarse,  and  vulgar. 

Her  birthday  preparations  were  rudely  intemipted, 
and  in  magniloquent  phrases  the  dowager  posed  to 
the  empire  and  discounted  a  greater  jubilee  celebra- 
tion after  the  war  by  assigning  to  military  purposes 
some  thousands  of  taels  that  had  been  high-handedly 
diverted  for  her  contemplated  holiday.  As  reverses 
came,  and  yellow  riding- jackets  and  peacock  feathers 
were  lifted  from  viceroys  and  generals  without  stop- 
ping the  advance  of  the  Japanese,  the  Empress  Dow- 
ager became  frightened— the  worst  frightened  one  of 
all  the  imperial  clan. 

Jehol  was  not  a  possible  asylum,  since  the  Japa- 
nese army  was  coming  from  the  east ;  and  Mukden, 
the  old  home  and  citadel  of  the  Manchus,  where  it 
was  said  they  had  been  storing  treasure  for  genera- 
tions against  the  day  of  their  expulsion  from  China, 
had  already  fallen  to  the  Japanese.  The  Empress 
Dowager  grew  frantic,  remembering  the  flight  to  Jehol 
and  all  that  had  followed  thirty-odd  years  before,  and 
implored  the  recall  of  Prince  Kung,  the  intervention 
of  the  European  envoys,  help  from  any  one— anything 
for  peace.  The  Emperor  exposed  the  dowager's 
frame  of  mind  in  edict  after  edict,  and  peace  was  de- 
sired, he  said,  if  only  as  a  panacea  to  the  elderly 
lady's  nerves.  The  Empress  Dowager  and  her  con- 
servative, foreign-hating  faction  had  entirely  lost 
"face,"  and  all  stomach  and  heart  for  war.  There 
was  no  overbearing  pride  left  in  them  then. 

"When  the  danger  was  past,  the  humiliating  peace 


TSZE  HSI  AN  THE  GREAT  131 

concluded,  and  the  three  Heaven-sent  allies  in  Eu- 
rope had  wrested  back  from  Japan  the  Liao-tung 
peninsula,  Chinese  insolence  and  self-sufficiency  rose 
again,  and  an  audience  was  given  the  envoys  in  a 
small  outer  hall  in  the  palace  grounds.  The  old  con- 
temptuous attitude  was  resumed  outwardly,  while 
provinces,  ports,  and  concessions  were  wrung  from 
them  by  the  Christian  powers,  as  Christian  knights 
in  the  middle  ages  used  to  despoil  the  Jews.  The 
great  viceroy  on  the  Yangtsze  urged  the  removal  of 
the  capital  to  either  Hankow  or  Nanking,  since  the 
old  memorialist's  warnings  against  Russia  were  more 
than  coming  true.  But  the  chagrined  Manchus,  still 
smarting  from  their  humiliation,  and  fearing  the 
Chinese  as  much  as  any  other  outer  enemy,  fatuously 
suggested  moving  the  capital  to  the  heart  of  the 
mountainous  province  of  Shansi,  "  where  the  foreign- 
ers could  not  follow,"  bound  themselves  faster  in 
Russia's  debt,  yielded  more  and  more  to  her  de- 
mands. 

The  war  had  taught  intelligent  and  progressive  Chi- 
nese that  a  change  must  come  if  their  country  was 
to  survive,  and  the  awakening  sense  of  the  long- 
sleeping  people  at  last  made  itself  heard  in  Peking. 
Although  progressive  ones  in  high  places  fell  ill, 
died,  or  went  into  retirement,  the  young  Emperor, 
once  freed  from  his  bigoted,  foreign-hating  tutor,  con- 
tinued to  read  foreign  books,  and  summoned  to  him 
the  *'  Modern  Sage,"  Kang  Yu  Wei,  a  Cantonese 
scholar  of  the  highest  degree,  who,  as  a  secretary  of 
the  Tsung-li  Yamun,  had  had  an  opportunity  of  mak- 
ing himself  known.     Then  the  palace  filled  up  with 


132  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

progressive  young  reformers,  unsuspected  advocates 
of  reform  declared  themselves,  and  the  Manchu  con- 
servatives were  in  panic. 

Prince  Henry  of  Prussia  came  with  his  terrible 
fleet,  took  formal  possession  of  the  German  priuci- 
pality-on-leasehold  of  Kiao-chau,  and  with  a  refine- 
ment of  satire  paid  his  respects  to  the  despoiled 
landowner  at  Peking.  The  Emperor  stood  up  to  re- 
ceive the  visitor  as  an  equal  in  the  audience-hall  of  the 
Summer  Palace,  and  returned  the  visit  with  due  cour- 
tesy. The  traditions  of  insolent  conservatism  were 
broken,  and  while  innovations  were  in  the  air,  and  all 
sacred  precedents  and  customs  were  being  disre- 
garded, the  Empress  Dowager  received  Prince  Henry 
face  to  face,  instead  of  listening  from  behind  a  screen, 
as  she  had  usually  given  audience  to  Chinese  officials. 
The  young  Empress  Yehonala  was  not  heard  of  at 
either  of  these  audiences,  but  Prince  Henry  suggested 
to  the  Empress  Dowager  that  she  should  receive  the 
ladies  of  the  diplomatic  corps,  ignoring  the  reigning 
Empress  in  a  way  that  could  not  be  thought  of  in 
Berlin,  nor  hardly  in  St.  Petersburg. 

All  through  that  summer  of  1898,  succeeding  Prince 
Henry's  illuminating  visit,  reform  edicts  poured  from 
the  palace,  calling  for  changes  by  wholesale,  for 
progress  post-haste,  and  for  regeneration  overnight; 
for  foreign  studies  to  be  made  the  tests  in  the  great 
examinations ;  for  foreign  drill  to  be  introduced  in 
the  army,  foreign  system  in  the  departments  of  the 
government.  A  host  of  incompetents  and  useless 
hangers-on  were  swept  out  of  office  in  brief  edicts, 
and  there  was  consternation  at  provincial  capitals.    It 


TSZE  HSI  AN  THE  GREAT  133 

is  said  that  an  edict  permitting  or  commanding  the 
cutting  of  the  queue  and  the  adoption  of  foreign  dress 
was  written,  but  not  given  out.  Schools  of  Western 
learning  were  authorized,  and  the  many  newspapers 
and  magazines,  that  had  been  the  first  agents  in  the 
work  of  reform,  were  subsidized  and  encouraged,  and 
others  projected.  The  Emperor  announced  that  he 
would  end  his  life  of  seclusion,  go  by  railway-train  to 
Tientsin  in  September  and  review  his  army  in  per- 
son, and  become  a  modern  ruler. 

The  Empress  Dowager's  feelings  may  easily  be  ima- 
gined ;  but  that  shrewdest  woman  in  Asia,  "  the  only 
man  in  China,"  as  she  has  been  called,  having  pro- 
tested and  interfered  in  vain,  soon  let  it  be  known 
that  she  was  the  moving  spirit  behind  the  Emperor, 
that  she  was  inspiring  the  new  departure.  She 
showed  an  ambition  to  be  in  the  forefront  of  progress, 
to  out-reform  the  reformers,  to  be  more  anxious  than 
they  were  for  railroads,  steam-engines,  and  Western 
civilization.  She  would  go  to  Tientsin  by  railway- 
train,  too,  and  attend  the  review  as  European  em- 
presses do.  She  would  adopt  European  etiquette 
and  dress  for  her  own  court,  hold  drawing-rooms, 
have  foreign  ladies  presented,  and  entertain  with 
fetes  and  garden-parties  like  the  Empress  of  Japan. 
Peking  was  dazed ;  the  Far  East  was  aghast ;  but  it 
was  understood  that  the  plans  for  the  new  etiquette 
were  being  formulated  upon  the  past  experience  of  the 
Japanese  in  changing  from  the  old  Eastern  etiquette  to 
European  court  customs.  Only  one  Manohu  noble- 
woman of  the  court  circle  has  been  educated  in  a 
foreign  country  in  foreign  ways,  and  has  permitted 


134  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

her  daughters  to  be  taught  on  the  same  lines,  and 
orders  were  given  this  Manchu  family  to  devise  and 
take  charge  of  the  changed  ceremonies  of  the  Empress 
Dowager's  court.  Before  that  family  could  reach 
Peking,  the  crash  came ;  reaction  reacted ;  the  coup 
d'etat  fell ;  the  reformers  fled  for  their  lives ;  decapi- 
tations were  made  by  wholesale,  and  the  whole  group 
of  progressives,  who  had  roused  the  Emperor  to  his 
country's  needs  and  perils,  were  exterminated.  All 
were  seized  save  Kang  Yu  Wei,  to  whom  the  Em- 
peror sent  a  last  message  to  fly  for  his  life.  The 
Emperor,  in  attempting  to  escape  from  the  palace 
himself,— to  seek  refuge  at  the  near-by  British  lega- 
tion, it  is  said,— was  seized  by  the  Empress  Dowager's 
eunuchs  and  carried  off  to  the  island  palace  in  her 
suburban  park. 

The  reformers  had  been  too  hasty  and  had  counted 
without  the  Empress  Dowager,  whom  they  openly  an- 
tagonized. Chang  Liu,  reformer,  in  one  memorial  to 
the  Emperor,  had  dared  to  say :  ''  The  relation  of  the 
Empress  Dowager  to  the  late  Emperor  Tungchih  was 
that  of  his  own  mother;  but  her  relation  to  you  is 
that  of  the  widowed  concubine  of  a  former  emperor." 
Wliile  they  had  written  essays  and  memorials  and 
inspired  edicts,  she  had  quietly  mustered  an  army  to 
the  neighborhood ;  and  the  unsuspecting  reformers 
confided  in  this  Tatar  general  of  hers,  who  imme- 
diately informed  the  dowager.  It  suited  the  Man- 
chu general  and  all  his  kind  to  keep  to  the  old  order. 
Moreover,  all  the  reformers  were  Chinese  of  the 
middle  and  southern  provinces,  their  leader  a  Can- 
tonese, the  most  hated  of  all  Chinese  by  the  Manchus 


TSZE  HSI  AN  THE  GREAT  135 

since  the  war  of  the  allies,  when  Cantonese  coolies 
worked  for  the  foreigners  and  saw  the  Manchus 
defeated  and  with  lost  "  face."  The  Empress  Dow- 
ager had  shrewdly  bided  her  time,  and  her  wits  re- 
seated her  on  the  throne,  with  her  obstreperous  stepson 
in  some  indefinite  sort  of  durance,  dethroned  maybe, 
or  abdicated  perhaps,  but  at  any  rate  out  of  her  way. 
The  little  episode  of  Kwangsu's  play  at  ruling  was 
over,  and  that  two  hundred  and  forty-sixth  Son  of 
Heaven  was  set  aside  as  easily  as  a  puppet  in  a 
box,  all  because  he  had  lacked  the  courage  and  force 
first  to  set  aside  and  crush  the  Empress  Dowager. 

Then,  "•  by  request,"  the  Empress  Dowager  unselfishly 
took  up  "  the  burden  of  rule  in  her  old  age,"  all  that 
the  invalid  Emperor  might  rest !  Not  an  allusion  was 
made  to  the  young  Empress  Yehonala,  although  two 
of  Yehonala's  brothers,  nephews  of  the  dowager,  were 
among  the  proscribed  and  persecuted  reformers.  It 
was  not  known  whether  she  remained  in  the  Peking 
palace  or  shared  the  imperial  prison  at  E-ho  Park. 
As  there  were  no  imperial  children,  the  Empress  Ye- 
honala counted  for  nothing  in  the  tragic  drama 
playing  on  in  those  thick- walled  palaces,  and  had  no 
such  leverage  as  the  beautiful  concubine  Tsze  Hsi  An 
made  use  of  forty  years  before.  Eunuchs  guarded 
her  somewhere,  as  eunuchs  guarded  the  Emperor  at 
E-ho,  and  although  eunuchs  were  ruthlessly  decapi- 
tated with  the  reformers,  Kang  Yu  Wei  doubts  if  the 
government  can  ever  be  reformed  until  the  palace  is 
wholly  rid  of  these  pests,  these  Oriental  survivals  of 
primitive  society,  who  are  the  arch-enemies  of  all  prog- 
ress and  reform, 


136  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

When  Kang  Yu  Wei  had  escaped  to  Shanghai,  to 
Hongkong,  to  Japan,  and  to  Europe,  he  was  pursued 
everywhere  by  spies  and  emissaries  told  off  for  his 
capture  or  murder.  Only  the  closest  police  surveil- 
lance protected  him,  and  the  price  on  his  head  was 
raised  to  two  hundred  thousand  taels  when  he  ven- 
tured as  near  as  Singapore.  As  the  last  stroke,  the 
vindictive  dowager  commanded  that  the  tombs  of 
Kang  Yu  Wei's  ancestors  should  be  desecrated  and 
destroyed.  Chinese  hatred  and  malice,  the  greatest 
fury  of  revenge,  could  not  devise  direr  punishment 
than  such  outrage  of  all  that  Chinese  hold  most 
sacred. 

The  wives  of  the  envoys  and  the  ladies  of  the  dip- 
lomatic corps  had  never  been  recognized  during  the 
thirty-eight  years  that  legations  had  been  established 
at  Peking,  and  after  the  dowager's  ready  assent  to 
Prince  Henry's  suggestion  it  took  months  of  pressure 
and  insistence,  and  long  discussions  as  to  the  form  and 
order,  before  the  audience  took  place.  The  Empress 
Dowager  protested  against  receiving  any  but  the  en- 
voys' wives,  because  of  the  great  number  it  would  in- 
clude, and  it  could  not  be  explained  to  her  that  not  all 
the  envoys,  nor  half  the  secretaries,  were  married.  The 
Chinese  brain  could  not  comprehend  such  a  condition, 
such  unevenness,  such  uregularity.  It  could  compre- 
hend two,  and  two  only.  Proper  consideration  was 
finally  accorded,  and  the  wives  of  the  British,  German, 
Japanese,  Russian,  American,  and  French  ministers, 
comprising  the  little  group  of  legation  chatelaines, 
were  properly  met  by  yellow  chairs  at  the  first  palace 
gate,  and  carried  to  the  doors  of  the  reception-hall. 


KAXG    \'U    WEI, 
The  "  Modem  Sage  "  of  Chiiift 


TSZE  HSI  AN  THE  GREAT  139 

Three  reverences  in  advancing  and  retiring  from  the 
presence  were  made  as  in  a  European  court,  and 
Lady  Macdonald,  doyenne  of  the  corps,  read  a  short 
address.  The  soberly  attired  dowager  made  gracious 
remarks,  and  the  guests  were  entertained  at  a  feast 
in  an  adjoining  hall.  She  did  not  sit  with  them,  nor 
was  anything  seen  or  heard  of  the  little  Empress 
Yehonala  in  dethronement.  Rolls  of  silk  and  pearl 
rings  were  distributed  before  the  visitors  took  leave, 
and  none  who  took  part  in  the  affair  seemed  to  show 
more  interest  or  pleasure  than  her  redoubtable 
Majesty  Tsze  Hsi  An.  When  the  diplomats  came  out 
of  that  trance  they  found  that  the  audience  of  the  for- 
eign ladies,  so  thrust  upon  the  Empress  Dowager,  was 
construed  as  an  official  recognition  of  the  usurper, 
a  virtual  acknowledgment  that  the  real  Empress 
was  dethroned. 

These  few  who  have  looked  upon  the  countenance 
of  the  dowager  describe  her  as  a  tall,  erect,  fine- 
looking  woman  of  distinguished  and  imperious  bear- 
ing, with  pronounced  Tatar  features,  the  eye  of  an 
eagle,  and  the  voice  of  determined  authority  and 
absolute  command.  She  has,  of  course,  the  natural, 
undef ormed  feet  of  Tatar  women,  and  is  credited  with 
great  activity,  a  fondness  for  archery  and  riding  and 
for  walking,  and  with  a  passion  for  games  of  chance 
and  theatrical  representations.  With  advancing' 
years,  empresses  and  Manchu  palace  women  assume 
more  sober  colors  in  their  outer  robe,  which  is  always 
the  long  Manchu  gown  touching  tlie  floor,  no  matter 
how  thick  the  soles  of  their  ''stilt"  or  "flower-pot" 
shoes  may  be.     There  are  curious  little  shoulder-cape 


140  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

arrangements  around  the  neck  of  their  ceremonial 
gowns,  which  have  the  Manchus'  symbolic  "horse- 
shoe" cuffs  falling  over  the  hand,  embroidered  plas- 
trons of  rank  on  back  and  breast,  and  the  large  offi- 
cial beads,  whose  use  as  insignia  of  high  station 
came  in  fashion  with*  the  Buddhist  religion.  After 
the  age  of  twenty-five,  empresses  and  princesses  put 
away  their  great  gold  bar-coronets  with  the  pendent 
showers  of  pearls  and  the  large  bouquets  of  flowers 
and  butterflies,  and  wear  instead  a  broad  fluted-gold 
coronal  set  with  stiff  bunches  of  flowers,  a  magnificent 
head-dress  very  like  a  cocked  hat  set  crosswise.  One 
may  buy  water-color  sketches  on  silk,  copied  from  old 
albums  of  court  costumes,  that  ohow  one  all  the  varie- 
ties and  vagaries  of  court  costume  worn  in  the  audience- 
hall  and  the  women's  quarters  of  the  palace.  One  may 
play  "paper  dolls"  in  this  way  with  the  imperial  folk 
and  their  followers,  but  otherwise  he  only  gets  tanta- 
lizing glimpses  now  and  then  of  the  court  beauties  and 
the  palace  women  in  their  carts,  gilded,  painted,  jew- 
eled, finished  like  works  of  art  and  enshrined  like 
idols  in  the  archaic  cart,  but  unknown. 

All  the  period  since  1861  should  be  rightly  re- 
corded as  the  reign  of  Tsze  Hsi  An,  a  more  eventful 
period  than  all  the  two  hundred  and  forty- four  reigns 
that  had  preceded  her  three  usurpations.  It  began 
after  a  conquering  army  had  made  terms  of  peace  in 
her  capital,  and  wdth  the  Taiping  rebellion  in  full  swing 
of  success.  Tlie  aid  of  foreign  nations  crushed  that  re- 
bellion, saved  the  throne,  and  propped  up  the  IManchu 
dynasty  for  a  little  longer.  The  break-up  of  China 
was  imminent  then,  but  Gordon  averted  it,  as  some 


TSZE  HSI  AN  THE  GREAT  141 

other  Heaven-sent  one  will  continue  to  do  at  every 
crisis.  There  succeeded  the  Nienfei  rebellion  in  Shan- 
tung, and  the  Mohammedan  rebellion  in  Yun-nan ;  the 
rebellions  in  Kan-su  and  Ili  and  Hu-nan,  the  difficulty 
with  the  Japanese  in  Formosa,  and  unexampled 
floods  and  famines.  Annam  and  Tongking  were 
lost  to  the  French;  tributary  Burma  passed  under 
British  rule,  and  China's  prestige  vanished  for- 
ever in  the  disastrous  war  with  Japan.  The  mere 
peninsula  of  Liao-tung,  claimed  by  Japan,  was  saved 
by  the  intervention  of  Russia  and  her  two  confed- 
erate nations  in  Europe,  in  order  that,  later,  the 
peninsula  and  the  whole  of  Manchuria  should  be 
handed  over  to  Russia  as  reward.  Kiao-chau  fell 
to  Germany  at  the  first  pretext,  and  France  took  a 
Shan  state  as  her  price  for  intervention.  Then 
England  leased  Wei-hai-wei,  and  acquired  the  Kow- 
loon  peninsula  opposite  Hongkong.  All  China  was 
marked  off  into  spheres  of  influence,  over  which  some 
double-headed  eagle  or  vulture  flew.  Italy  demanded  a 
port;  Denmark  equipped  an  expedition.  In  the  last 
moment  an  understanding  with  Japan  set  the  totter- 
ing throne  erect,  warned  predatory  powers  off,  but 
roused  Russia  to  fresh  demands ;  and  then  came  the 
dramatic  stroke  when  that  new  world-power,  the  '" 
United  States,  appeared  as  the  great  and  good  friend 
of  Tsze  Hsi  An  in  securing  written  assurances  that 
the  harpy  powers  would  maintain  the  "  open  door  " 
in  trade,  and  therefore  the  integrity  of  China.  Where- 
upon Tsze  Hsi  An  felt  herself  again  saved  from  the 
break-up,  and  safe  in  announcing,  in  an  edict  signed 
by   Kwangsu,  January  24,  1900,  the  abdication   of 


142  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

Kwangsu,  and  the  choice  of  Pu  Chun  as  heir  to  the 
throne,— son  of  Prince  Tuan,  and  grandson  of  the 
dowager's  own  deceased  consort,  the  Emperor  Hien- 
fung,— a  bo)'^  of  nine,  whose  father  and  tutors  have 
been  rabid  anti-foreign  conservatives  of  the  most  viru- 
lent, unenlightened  kind,  leaders  of  the  secret  societies 
opposed  to  foreigners  and  Western  progress. 

Then  a  storm  arose,  and  Tsze  Hsi  An  quickly  pro- 
duced the  passive  Kwangsu,  and  permitted  him  to  as- 
sume the  role  of  emperor  during  the  brief  New  Year's 
audience  with  the  foreign  envoys.  In  all  topsyturvy- 
dom surely  nothing  approaches  this  petticoat  tyranny 
and  bullying  of  poor  Kwangsu— the  one  man  in  palaces 
full  of  women  and  eunuchs,  yet  unable  to  free  or 
assert  liimself ;  a  manikin  majesty,  who  is  put  off  and 
on  the  throne  at  short  notice ;  set  up  and  lifted  down 
like  a  marionette  or  a  piece  of  furniture,  without  as 
much  as  a  "By  your  leave";  a  pitiful  "paper  tiger" 
of  an  emperor. 

Kang  Yu  Wei,  at  Singapore,  suiTOunded  by  a  body- 
guard of  defenders  and  by  colonial  police,  in  a  city 
full  of  spies  and  hired  assassins,  continued  to  ful- 
minate against  "  the  False  One,"  "  the  Usurper,"  "  the 
Concubine  Relict,"  and  the  infamous  Li  Luen-yen,  her 
sham  eunuch,  to  whom  he  ascribed  all  power  and  all 
evil.  Kang  Yu  Wei  even  threatened  to  head  a  rebel 
army,  wliicli  madness  would  probably  precipitate  the 
inevitable  Russian  garrisoning  of  Peking,  and  the 
certain  Russo-Japanese  war. 


XI 

THE  STRANGERS'  QUARTER 

[T  the  close  of  the  war  in  1860,  the  humil- 
iated government,  accepting  the  pres- 
ence of  foreign  envoys  at  Peking  as 
a  necessary  evil,  offered  the  Summer 
Palace  inclosure  for  a  great  diplomatic 
compound,  and  then  a  tract  of  land  immediately  out- 
side the  west  wall  for  a  foreign  concession.  Sir 
Harry  Parkes  led  in  emphatically  repudiating  these 
offers,  and  the  Liang-Kung-fu  (palace  of  the  Duke  of 
Liang)  was  bought  for  a  British  legation,  Duke  Tsin's 
fu  becoming  the  French  legation.  A  fu  always  has 
green-tned  roofs,  stone  lions  before  the  five-bayed 
entrance-gate,  and  four  courts  and  pavilions  beyond, 
and  a  fu  is  assigned  to  each  imperial  son  outside  of 
the  succession.  Imperial  descendants  move  down 
one  degree  in  rank  with  each  generation,  and  when 
the  third  descendant  has  reached  the  level  of  the  peo- 
ple again,  the  fu  reverts  to  the  crown.  The  occu- 
pants of  fus  may  have  eunuchs  attached  to  their 
establishments,  and  to  the  remotest  generation  they 
may  wear  the  yellow  girdle  of  imperial  descent.    There 

8  143 


144  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

have  been  yellow-belted  teachers,  and  even  domestic 
servants  in  foreign  employ,  starvelings  of  imperial 
ancestry  who  took  their  few  dollars  with  plebeian 
gratitude. 

All  the  legations  are  in  that  quarter  of  the  Tatar 
City  where  Mongols,  Tibetans,  Koreans,  and  other 
tribute-bearing  visitors  were  always  lodged,  and 
where  the  Mongols  still  have  a  street  to  themselves. 
The  French,  German,  Japanese,  Spanish,  and  Italian 
legations,  the  club,  the  hotel,  the  bank,  and  the  two 
foreign  stores  are  grouped  closely  together,  facing 
and  touching  one  another  half-way  down  Legation 
Street ;  and,  across  a  once  splendid  bridge,  the  Ameri- 
can and  Russian  legations  face,  and  the  British 
legation,  adjoining,  stretches  along  an  infragi-ant 
canal,  or  open  sewer,  that  drains  away  from  lakes  in 
the  palace  grounds.  The  British  is  the  largest  estab- 
lishment, the  five-acre  compound  always  sheltering 
from  forty  to  fifty  British  souls,  or  "  mouths  "  in  the 
sordid  Chinese  expression.  All  these  European  lega- 
tions and  the  Japanese  legation  have  their  corps  of 
student-interpreters,  university  graduates  sent  out 
for  two  years'  study  of  the  Chinese  written  and  spoken 
language,  the  Pekingese  or  mandarin  court  dialect 
used  by  the  official  class  throughout  the  empire.  At 
the  completion  of  their  prescribed  course  under  their 
minister's  charge,  they  are  drafted  to  consulates,  are 
steadily  promoted  in  line  of  seniority,  and  retire  on 
pensions  after  twenty-five  years'  service. 

All  these  official  European  residences  are  maintained 
on  a  scale  of  considerable  splendor,  and  the  sudden 
transfers  from  the  noisome  streets  to  the  beautiful 


THE  STRANGERS'  QUARTER        145 

parks  and  garden  compounds,  the  drawing-rooms  and 
ball-rooms,  with  their  brilliant  companies  living  and 
amusing  themselves  exactly  as  in  Europe,  are  among 
the  greatest  contrasts  and  surprises  of  Peking.  The 
picked  diplomats  of  all  Europe  are  sent  to  Peking, 
lodged  sumptuously,  paid  high  salaries,  and  sustained 
by  the  certainty  of  promotions  and  rewards  after  a 
useful  term  at  Peking— all  but  the  American  minis- 
ter, who  is  crowded  in  small  rented  premises,  is  paid 
about  a  fourth  as  much  as  the  other  envoys,  and,  com- 
ing untrained  to  his  career,  has  the  cheerful  certainty 
of  being  put  out  of  office  as  soon  as  he  has  learned 
his  business  and  another  President  is  elected,  his  stay 
in  Peking  on  a  meager  salary  a  sufficient  incident  in 
itself,  leading  to  nothing  further  officially.  The 
United  States  does  not  maintain  student-interpreters 
at  Peking,  and  the  legation  has  so  far  drafted  its  in- 
terpreters from  the  mission  boards.  Such  interpre- 
ters, having  usually  given  most  attention  to  the  local 
dialects  of  the  people,  must  then  acquire  the  elaborate 
and  specialized  idioms  of  the  official  class.  Dr.  Peter 
Parker  and  the  great  Wells  Williams  are  the  only 
sinologues,  or  Chinese  scholars,  who  have  lent  luster 
to  the  roll  of  American  diplomats  serving  in  China. 
The  diplomats  in  exile  lead  a  narrow,  busy  life 
among  themselves,  occupied  with  their  social  amuse- 
ments and  feuds,  often  well  satisfied  with  Peking 
after  their  first  months  of  disgust,  resentment,  and 
homesickness,  and  even  becoming  sensitive  to  any 
criticism  or  disparagement  of  the  place.  They  have 
their  club,  the  tennis-courts  of  which  are  flooded  and 
roofed  over  as  a  skating-rink,  their  spring  and  autumn 


146  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

races  at  a  track  beyond  the  walls,  frequent  garden- 
parties  and  picnic  teas  in  the  open  seasons,  and  a  busy 
round  of  state  dinners  and  balls  all  winter. 

For  the  nearl}^  forty  years  that  the  fine  flowers  of  Eu- 
ropean diplomacy  have  been  transplanted  to  Peking, 
they  have  been  content  to  wallow  along  this  filthy 
Legation  Street,  breathing  its  dust,  sickened  with 
its  mud  and  stenches,  the  highway  before  their  doors 
a  general  sewer  and  dumping-ground  for  offensive 
refuse  of  every  kind.  The  street  is  all  gutter  save 
where  there  are  fragmentary  attempts  at  a  raised  mud- 
bank  footwalk  beside  the  house  walls,  for  use  when 
the  cartway  between  is  too  deep  a  mud-slough.  *'  We 
are  here  on  sufferance,  under  protest,  you  know,"  say 
the  meek  and  lowly  diplomats.  ''We  must  not  of- 
fend Chinese  prejudices."  Moreover,  all  the  legations 
would  not  subscribe  to  an  attempted  improvement 
fund,  nor  all  unite  in  demanding  that  the  Chinese 
should  clean,  light,  pave,  and  drain  Legation  Street— 
that  jealousy  of  the  great  powers  so  ironically  termed 
the  "Concert  of  Europe"  as  much  to  blame  for  the 
sanitary  situation  in  one  corner  of  Peking  as  for 
affairs  in  Crete  and  Armenia. 

The  whole  stay  of  the  envoys  at  Peking  has  been  a 
long  story  of  trial  and  fruitless  effort,  of  rebuffs  and 
covert  insults.  It  was  unfortunate  that  their  resi- 
dence began  without  the  refugee  Emperor  being 
forced  to  come  down  from  Jehol  and  receive  them 
with  honors  and  due  courtesy,  and  that  the  long  re- 
gency of  the  two  secluded  empresses  continued  the 
evasion  of  personal  audiences,  since  precedent  and 
custom  soon  crystallize  in  fixed  laws  to  the  Chinese. 


THE  STEANGERS'  QUAETER        149 

In  the  first  years  of  their  disgrace  and  defeat,  the  offi- 
cials were  civil  and  courteous,  gracious  and  kindly  in 
their  intercourse  with  diplomats ;  but  in  a  few  years 
they  recovered  their  aplomb,  found  their  lost  "  face," 
and  became  as  insolent,  arrogant,  contemptuous,  and 
overbearing  as  they  had  been  before  the  war,  and 
have  continued  to  be,  save  in  other  brief  moments  of 
humiliation  and  defeat,  ever  since. 

The  audience  question  was  just  reaching  the  hope- 
ful and  enlightened  stage  when  the  coup  d'etat  un- 
settled things.  There  have  been  no  social  relations 
between  the  diplomatic  corps  and  the  court  circle,  no 
meeting  or  mingling  save  for  the  formal  presentation 
of  credentials,  the  dreary  New  Year's  audiences  in 
the  palace  inclosure,  the  ladies'  audience  of  1898,  and 
the  formal  exchange  of  visits  with  the  members  of  the 
Board  of  the  Tsung-li  Yamun,  and,  in  general,  none 
know  less  of  Chinese  character  and  life  than  those  offi- 
cially acquainted  with  the  Emperor  of  China.  No  Chi- 
nese official  dares  maintain  intimate  social  relations 
with  the  legations,  even  those  who  have  appreciated  and 
keenly  enjoyed  the  social  life  and  official  hospitalities  of 
London,  Paris,  Tokio,  and  Washington  relapsing  into 
strange  conservatism  and  churlishness,  the  usual  con- 
temptuous attitude  of  the  Manchu  official,  when  they 
return  to  Peking.  Even  then  they  are  denounced  to 
the  throne  for  "  intimacy  with  foreigners,"  black- 
balled and  cold-shouldered  at  their  clubs,  and  perse- 
cuted into  retirement  by  jealous  ones,  who  consider 
association  with  foreigners  a  sure  sign  of  disloyalty. 
Even  the  needy  literati,  who  teach  Chinese  at  the  dif- 
ferent legations,  would  scorn  to  recognize  their  foreign 


150  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

pupils  on  the  street  or  in  the  presence  of  any  other 
Chinese,  and  the  contempt  of  grandees  and  petty 
button-folk  as  they  pass  one  on  the  streets  of  Peking 
is  something  to  remember  in  one's  hours  of  pride. 

During  recent  years,  Peking  has  been  such  a  hot- 
bed of  intrigue,  secret  conventions,  and  concession- 
seeking,  of  high-handed  and  underhanded  proceedings, 
that  a  diplomat's  life  has  not  been  a  happy  one,  nor 
his  position  a  sinecure.  With  coup  d'etats  before 
breakfast,  executions  overnight,  rioting  soldiers  at 
the  railway-station,  mobs  stoning  legation  carts  and 
chairs  at  will,  and  telegraphic  communication  broken 
whenever  the  soldiers  could  reach  the  wires,  the  lega- 
tions called  for  guards  of  their  own  marines  in  the 
autumn  of  1898.  Thirty  or  forty  guards  were  sent 
to  different  European  legations,  but  the  Russian  lega- 
tion required  seventy  men-at-arms  and  Cossacks  to 
protect  it.  Last  to  arrive  were  nine  marines  to  de- 
fend the  modest  premises  rented  to  the  great  republic 
of  the  United  States  of  North  America,  the  want  of 
actual  roof-area  to  shelter  more  guards  obliging  tlie 
American  minister  to  ask  that  the  other  marines 
should  remain  at  Tientsin,  eighty  miles  away.  By 
renting  a  Chinese  house,  eighteen  marines  were  finally 
quartered  near  the  legation.  This  would  have  been 
farcical  and  laughable,  humiliating  to  American  pride 
only,  if  there  had  not  been  real  danger  and  need  for 
guards  for  the  little  community  of  foreign  diplomats, 
shut  like  rats  in  a  trap  in  a  double-walled  city 
of  an  estimated  million  three  hundred  thousand 
fanatic,  foreign-hating  Chinese,  with  a  more  hostile 
and  lawless  army  of  sixty  thousand  vicious  Chinese 


THE  STRANGERS'  QUARTER        151 

soldiers  without  the  walls  and  scattered  over  the 
country  toward  Tientsin. 

All  international  affairs  are  dealt  with  by  the  Board 
of  the  Tsung-li  Yamun,  established  as  a  temporary 
bureau  of  necessity  after  the  war  of  1860,  and  still  rank- 
ing as  an  inferior  board,  not  one  of  the  six  great  boards 
or  departments  of  the  government.  It  has  not  even 
the  honor  of  being  housed  within  the  Imperial  City. 
Ministers  have  always  a  long,  slow  ride  in  state  across 
to  the  shabby  gateway  of  the  forlorn  old  yamun,  where 
now  eleven  aged,  sleepy  incompetents  muddle  with  for- 
eign affairs.  As  these  eleven  elders  have  reached  such 
posts  by  steady  advances,  they  are  always  septuagena- 
rians worn  out  with  the  exacting,  empty,  routine  rites 
and  functions  of  such  high  office,  and  physically  too 
exhausted  by  their  midnight  rides  to  and  sunrise  de- 
partures from  the  palace  to  begin  fitly  the  day's  tedium 
at  the  dilapidated  Tsung-li  Yamun.  The  appoint- 
ment for  an  interview  with  the  non-committal,  ir- 
responsible board  must  be  made  beforehand,  the 
minister  and  his  secretaries  are  always  kept  waiting, 
and  the  inner  reception-room  swarms  with  gaping 
attendants  during  an  interview.  Once  the  American 
minister  made  a  vigorous  protest,  and  refused  to  con- 
duct any  negotiations  while  there  were  underlings  in 
the  room ;  and  as  it  was  business  that  the  Chinese 
government  wished  conducted,  the  minions  were 
summarily  cast  out— cast  out  to  the  other  side  of  the 
many-hinged,  latticed  doors,  where  they  scuffled  au- 
dibly for  first  places  at  cracks  and  knot-holes.  The 
other  envoys  would  not  sustain  the  American  protest, 
and  soon  the  farce  of  tlie  empty  room  was  played  to 


152  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

an  end,  and  the  servants  came  in  with  their  pipes  and 
fans,  tea  and  cake  and  candies,  as  usual ;  stood  about, 
commented  on,  and  fairly  took  part  in  the  diplomatic 
conversations,  as  before.  An  unconscionable  time  is 
always  consumed  in  offering  and  arranging  the  tea 
and  sweets,  and  to  any  direct  questions  these  Celestial 
statesmen  always  answer  with  praises  of  the  melon- 
seeds  or  ginger-root— "lowering  buckets  into  a  bot- 
tomless well,"  was  Sir  Harry  Parkes's  comparison  for 
an  audience  at  this  yamun. 

*'  I  go  to  the  yamun  by  appointment  at  a  certain 
hour,"  said  one  diplomat,  ''  and  while  I  am  waiting 
my  usual  wait  in  those  dirty,  cold  rooms,  the  ash- 
sifter  comes  in  and  wants  to  know  if  I  think  there 
will  be  war  between  this  and  that  European  power; 
because,  mind  you,  some  very  peculiar  telegrams  have 
just  arrived  for  those  legations.  Every  legation  tele- 
gram is  read  and  discussed  at  the  yamun,  you  know, 
before  it  is  delivered  to  us,  and  the  cipher  codes  give 
them  rare  ideas." 

Every  servant  in  a  foreign  establishment  in  Peking 
is  a  spy  and  informer  of  some  degree ;  espionage  is  a 
regular  business;  and  the  table-talk,  visiting-list, 
dinner-list,  card-tray,  and  scrap-basket,  with  full  ac- 
counts of  all  comings  and  goings,  sayings  and  doings, 
of  any  envoy  or  foreigner  in  Peking,  are  regularly 
offered  for  purchase  by  recognized  purveyors  of  such 
news.  One  often  catches  a  glimpse  of  concentrated 
attention  on  the  face  of  the  turbaned  servants  stand- 
ing behind  dining-room  chairs,  that  convinces  one  of 
this  feature  of  capital  life.  Diplomatic  secrets  are 
fairly  impossible  in  such  an  atmosphere.     Every  secret 


THE  STRANGERS'  QUARTER        153 

convention  and  concession  is  soon  blazoned  abroad. 
Every  word  the  British  minister  uttered  at  the  Tsung- 
li  Yamun  was  reported  to  the  Russian  legation  with 
almost  electric  promptness,  until  the  envoy  threatened 
to  suspend  negotiations  and  withdraw.  Wily  con- 
cessionaries know  each  night  where  their  rivals  are 
dining  and  what  they  have  said ;  whether  any  piece 
of  written  paper  has  passed,  and  what  has  gone  on  at 
each  legation  in  Peking  and  eacli  consulate  at  Tien- 
tsin. Every  legation  keyhole,  crack,  and  chink  has 
its  eye  and  ear  at  critical  times,  and  by  a  multiplica- 
tion in  imagination  one  arrives  at  an  idea  of  what 
the  palace  may  be  like. 

Decorations  are  freely  bestowed  upon  the  diplo- 
mats who  coerce  most  severely,  and  the  Chinese  or- 
ders are  very  splendid  ornaments  to  court  uniforms. 
Before  the  Order  of  the  Dragon  was  founded  in  1863, 
to  reward  the  foreign  soldiers  who  took  part  in  sup- 
pressing the  Taiping  rebellion,  an  emperor  had  hon- 
ored his  subjects  by  bestowing  buttons  and  feathers, 
yellow  riding-jackets,  colored  reins,  and  acacia-bark 
scabbards,  and  by  permitting  eminent  personages  to 
ride  or  be  carried  into  some  still  farther  court  of  the 
palace  before  dismounting.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  General  Gordon  returned  the  yellow  riding- 
jacket  as  well  as  the  purse  and  presents  sent  him ; 
and  Li  Hung  Chang's  yellow  jacket,  conferred  at  the 
same  time,  was  thrice  taken  away  from  him  and  as 
often  restored.  The  Order  of  the  Double  Dragon 
was  instituted  in  1881 ;  double,  because  one  set  of 
decorations— buttons,  feathers,  and  jackets— is  re- 
served for  Chinese   subjects,   and  the  conventional 


154  CHINA:    THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

ribbons  and  decorations  of  European  orders  are  be- 
stowed upon  foreigners,  jeweled  and  plain  gold 
medals  with  plain  and  bordered  yellow  ribbon  distin- 
guishing the  five  grades  of  merit.  Many  decorations 
of  the  Double  Dragon  were  bestowed  after  the 
Japanese  war,  thank-offerings  and  ex-votos  promised 
fervently,  when  the  scare  at  Peking  was  greatest. 
Many  of  the  favored  ones  discovered  that  the  im- 
perial yellow  satin  box  contained  only  clumsy  brass 
insignia,  with  blue  glass  instead  of  sapphires  in 
the  dragon's  eyes.  A  few,  whom  the  gift  followed 
to  foreign  countries,  accepted  the  swindle  without  re- 
marks, but  one  diplomatic  decore,  happening  to  return 
to  Peking,  sent  his  brass  bauble  to  headquarters  with 
a  polite  note  requesting  an  exchange  for  the  real 
thing.  Then  it  was  known  what  a  fine  harvest  some 
one  had  been  reaping  from  imperial  honors. 

The  most  remarkable  man  in  China,  the  ablest  dip- 
lomat in  Peking,  that  benevolent  despot  "  the  I.  G.," 
as  he  is  known  in  English  speech  all  over  the  Far  East, 
or  Sir  Robert  Hart,  the  inspector-general,  the  organizer, 
arbiter,  and  many-sided  director  of  the  Imperial 
Maritime  Customs  service,  maintains  greater  state 
than  any  envoy  in  a  verandahed  villa  in  the  midst  of 
a  high-walled  park,  which  also  contains  the  resi- 
dences of  his  immediate  staff.  His  bureau  or  depart- 
ment is  the  one  financial  stay  and  prop,  the  one 
negotiable  asset,  the  one  honestly  administered  and 
creditable  branch  or  hopeful  feature  in  all  the  Chi- 
nese scheme  or  plan  of  government.  The  collection 
of  the  revenue  from  foreign  customs  dues  was  first 
put  in  the  hands  of  foreigners  by  an  arrangement 


THE  STRANGERS'  QUARTER  155 

suggested  by  the  foreign  merchants  to  the  Chinese 
authorities  at  Shanghai  during  the  Taiping  rebellion. 
The  temporary  expedient  worked  so  well,  yielding 
such  an  unexpectedly  great  revenue,  and  demonstrat- 
ing how  much  of  this  revenue  had  heretofore  been 
estranged  by  Chinese  officials,  that  the  imperial 
authorities  gladly  extended  the  service,  and  put  it 
definitely  under  foreign  control.  Every  treaty  and 
indemnity  loan  has  since  extracted  fresh  pledges  that 
the  customs  service  should  remain  under  foreign 
management.  Sir  Robert  Hart  left  the  British  con- 
sular service  in  1861,  and  in  his  hands  the  '^  Chinese 
Customs  "  has  become  the  most  admirable  civil  service 
in  the  world.  The  officers  of  this  honorable  and 
well-paid  service  are  university  graduates  appointed 
from  each  country  in  numbers  proportioned  to  that 
country's  share  in  the  foreign  trade  of  China.  As 
England  holds  the  largest  share  of  that  trade,  Eng- 
lish university  men  of  course  predominate  in  the 
customs  service,  and  accounts  are  kept  and  business 
transacted  in  Chinese  and  in  English,  the  accepted 
trade  language  of  the  East.  Each  appointee,  on 
coming  out  to  China,  spends  two  years  at  Peking 
studying  the  written  and  spoken  language,  and  is 
obliged  to  continue  his  studies  and  pass  examinations 
from  time  to  time,  since  promotion  greatly  depends 
on  proficiency  in  the  Chinese  language.  Intelligent 
favoritism  has  always  recognized  special  talents  and 
abilities,  and  the  men  of  parts  and  tact  and  diplo- 
matic ability  have  always  been  availed  of  and  put 
forward  where  their  qualities  could  count  most  for 
the  service.     The  fall  and  demonetization  of  silver 


156  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

in  the  West  sadly  reduced  the  liberal  salaries  of 
those  silver-paid  employees,  who,  instead  of  retiring 
pensions,  have  an  increased  percentage  of  pay  each 
year.  They  are  furnished  with  handsome  residences, 
and  the  commissioner  of  each  port  maintains  that 
state  and  ceremony  which  must  accompany  power 
in  the  East.  The  increase  of  foreign  trade,  the  open- 
ing of  more  treaty  ports,  the  addition  of  the  light- 
house and  postal  service  of  the  empire  to  this  bureau, 
have  necessitated  a  great  increase  in  the  number 
of  foreign  customs  employees  in  this  decade,  and 
greatly  complicated  the  work  at  headquarters  in 
Peking,  but  the  inspector-general  still  directs  it  all 
and  has  every  detail  in  grasp.  He  has  never  offended 
Chinese  conservatism  and  prejudices,  while  steadily 
inserting  the  thin  edge  of  some  wedge  of  progress 
and  reform.  In  every  dilemma,  tlie  imperial  govern- 
ment turns  to  him,  and  he  has  planned  coast  defenses, 
conducted  j)eace  negotiations,  arranged  conventions, 
and  reduced  indemnity  demands  past  counting.  The 
Chinese  appreciate  him,— gi-udgingly,  it  may  be,  ad- 
miring in  him  what  their  own  officials  lack,— and 
have  heaped  rewards  and  honors  upon  him  without 
stint.  Every  government  in  Europe  has  decorated 
him,  and  when  the  Chinese  had  decreed  all  within 
their  power  they  ennobled  his  ancestors  for  three 
generations  back,  conferring  the  button  of  the  first 
rank  upon  his  father,  grandfather,  and  great-grand- 
father. Chinese  wishes  for  his  long  life  are  sincere, 
for  after  him  may  come  the  deluge,  the  break-up, 
but  not  while  he  lives. 

This  clever,  delightful  Ii-ish  gentleman  is  the  pet 


THE  STRANGERS'  QUARTER        157 

and  arbiter  of  Peking  society,  which  he  assembles  each 
week  to  dance  on  his  lawn  and  roam  his  garden  alleys 
in  summer,  and  to  dance  in  his  great  ball-room  in 
winter.  Under  his  direction,  a  Manila  master  has 
trained  a  Chinese  band,  whose  brass  and  reed  instru- 
ments send  the  strains  of  the  "  Washington  Post "  and 
"  Old  Town  "  gaily  about  that  quarter  of  Peking.  The 
Chinese  officials  enjoy  the  band  concerts  and  also  the 
brilliant  illumination  furnished  by  Sir  Robert's  gas- 
plant,  one  great  gas-burner  in  a  conventional  city '' 
street-lamp  having  flared  as  a  beacon  of  progress  from 
his  compound  wall  beside  the  dark  Koulan-hu-tung 
alley  for  a  quarter  of  a  century— a  blessing  to  way- 
farers, but  an  object-lesson  utterly  wasted  on  the 
Peking  municipality. 


XII 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS 


HEN  a  first  papal  embassy  came  to 
China  in  the  seventh  century,  the 
Nestorian  Christians  had  then  been 
zoah)Usly  proselytizing  there  for  a 
hundred  years.  Friar  Odoric,  who 
visited  KubU^i  Khan  on  his  way  to  the  realm  of 
Prester  John,  found  the  Mongol  Empress  a  convert ; 
and  when  the  first  Jesuit,  Father  Ricci,  came  up  from 
Macao,  the  Ming  Emperor  Wanli  showed  him  special 
favor.  Father  Schaal,  wlio  reformed  the  Chinese 
calendar,  was  tutor  of  the  Manchu  Emperor  Kanghsi, 
and  Father  Verbeist  became  his  chief  astronomer  and 
president  of  the  Board  of  Works.  Kanghsi  honored 
these  Jesuits  in  every  way,  accorded  them  rank 
and  consideration  at  court,  and  built  them  dwellings 
and  a  church  beside  the  palace.  Through  the  great 
Colbert,  the  Frencli  Academy  of  Sciences  became  in- 
terested in  China,  and  six  Jesuit  priests  of  scientific 
training  were  sent  to  Peking,  whei'c  tlie  Emperor  re- 
ceived tliem  with  tlie  greatest  favor,  Tliey  ranked 
as  nobles  and  literati,  and  Kanghsi  kept  them  in  con- 
stant attendance.     They  designed  and  decorated  the 

158 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  159 

rococo  pavilions  and  the  Italian  villas  in  the  Summer 
Palace  grounds,  directed  the  artists  in  the  palace 
ateliers,  produced  new  colors  and  decorative  motifs 
for  the  potters  at  King-te-ehen,  and  at  their  own 
glass-works  by  the  Pei-tang,  or  northern  cathedral, 
produced  many  works  of  art.  They  surveyed  and 
mapped  the  empire,  and  Father  Ripa,  who  engraved 
the  plates  of  the  great  map,  has  left  a  most  interesting 
account  of  the  daily  palace  life.  The  priests  cured 
Kanghsi  of  ague  by  doses  of  cinchona,  or  "  Jesuits' 
bark,"  then  new  in  Europe,  and  their  influence  was 
supreme.  The  Emperor's  mother,  wife,  son,  and  half 
the  court  were  baptized  as  Christians,  and  Kanghsi 
only  hesitated  himself  because  of  his  worshipful  ances- 
tors. Those  early  Jesuits  were  broad,  tolerant,  sen- 
sible, and  far-seeing,  and  if  they  had  been  let  alone  or 
sustained  by  an  intelligent  pope  during  the  enlight- 
ened reign  of  Kanghsi  there  might  be  a  very  different 
China  to-day.  They  urged  the  Pope  to  canonize  the 
imperial  ancestors,  and  thus  do  away  with  the  one  ob- 
stacle to  the  Emperor's  conversion ;  but  meddling  and 
envious  Dominicans  and  Franciscans  came  to  Peking, 
and  reported  to  Rome  that  the  Jesuits  were  tolerating 
and  sanctioning  heathen  customs  and  leading  lives  of 
worldly  pomp  and  splendor.  The  Pope  sent  legates 
to  make  inquiries  and,  naturally,  trouble  with  the 
Jesuits,  and  Kanghsi,  resenting  this  interference,  and 
wearied  with  the  bickerings  of  the  new  priests,  would 
have  nothing  more  to  do  with  the  religion  or  its 
teachers  after  Clement  XI  had  launched  his  bull  sup- 
porting the  Dominican  contentions  and  denouncing 
ancestor-worship  as  a  heathen  practice. 


160  CHINA:  THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

His  son  and  successor,  Yung  Cheng,  was  an  ardent 
Buddhist,  and  Father  Ripa  tells  how  he  further 
abridged  the  privileges  of  the  priests,  deprived  them 
of  all  honor  and  rank  at  court,  and  tolerated  them  only 
as  directors  of  works  and  art  industries.  The  Em- 
peror Kienlung  was  more  gracious ;  he  sat  to  Attiret 
for  his  portrait,  he  entered  into  correspondence  with 
Voltaire  tlirough  Father  Amiot,  and  he  showed  mi- 
nute interest  in  the  painters  who  were  further  embel- 
lishing his  suburban  home.  Toleration  ended  with  his 
reign,  and  under  disfavor  and  neglect  and  finally  open 
persecution  the  Jesuits  decreased  until,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  century,  the  one  Jesuit  priest  at  Peking 
sold  the  church  property  and  left.  In  1860  the  French 
insisted  upon  the  restoration  of  this  churcli  to  the 
Jesuits,  and  slipped  into  their  treaty  a  clause,  not  in- 
cluded in  the  Chinese  copy  of  this  treaty,  which  secured 
full  rights  and  immunities  for  Roman  missions  and 
their  converts.  France,  at  that  time  the  armed  de- 
fender of  the  Pope's  temporal  power  in  Rome,  became 
the  recognized  official  protector  of  the  faith  in  the 
East.  Under  the  favored-nation  clause,  all  sects  then 
claimed  the  right  to  reside,  own  property,  and  con- 
duct mission  work  in  the  interior.  Stri(;t  moralists 
may  decide  whether  this  introduction  of  Christian 
missions  by,  diplomatic  fraud  and  deceit,  backed  up 
by  gunboats,  gave  the  religion  any  prestige  "with  the 
government. 

The  Jesuits  rebuilt  their  Pei-tang  with  a  tall  tower 
overlooking  the  private  gardens  of  the  palace,  spoil- 
ing the  f  ung-sliui  of  tlie  neighborhood,  and  so  enraging 
the  regents  that  in  1885  the  Chinese  insisted  on  only 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  161 

one  clause  in  the  French  treaty  of  peace  —  that  the 
Jesuits  should  again  sell  the  property  to  the  crown  and 
build  on  land  given  them  elsewhere.  The  new  Pei- 
tang  is  a  splendid  building,  having  a  school,  hospital, 
orphanage,  printing-office,  library,  and  museum  con- 
nected with  it,  all  presided  over  by  Bishop  Favier,  an 
astute  and  scholarly  Jesuit,  an  eminent  art  connois- 
seur, and  author  of  the  monumental  illustrated  work 
"  Peking,"  last  issued  from  the  Pei-tang  press.  With- 
out diplomatic  aid,  he  negotiated  a  convention  in 
1899  which  secures  to  bishops  and  priests  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  equal  official  rank  with  viceroys  and 
provincial  magistrates;  which  enables  them  to  ex- 
change visits,  demand  interviews,  and  adjust  local 
difficulties  without  appealing  to  French  consuls  or 
the  French  minister.  It  discounted  the  possible  aban- 
donment of  the  mission  protectorate  by  anti-clerical 
France ;  prevented  any  assumption  of  a  protectorate 
of  Christian  missions  by  Germany ;  cheered  the  Pope 
as  an  indirect  recognition  of  his  temporal  power; 
and  by  exalting  all  Catholic  missionaries  in  provin- 
cial Chinese  eyes  has  greatly  incensed  all  Protestant 
missionaries,  and,  some  believe,  has  imperiled  them. 

The  Catholic  Fathers,  who  direct  the  Pei-tang,  have 
in  their  charge  the  Dung-tang,  or  eastern  church, 
the  Hsi-tang,  or  western  church,  and  the  old  Nan- 
tang,  the  southern  or  Portuguese  cathedral,  and  also 
the  chapel  in  the  French  legation  compound.  From 
this  long  establishment  of  French  Jesuits  at  Pe- 
king there  has  grown  a  colony  of  French-speaking 
Christian  Chinese,  who  by  hereditary  custom  almost 
monopolize    certain    occupations.      The   painters   in 


162  CHINA:    THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

water-color,  engravers  on  copper,  watch-  and  instru- 
ment-makers, and  suuff-dealers  are  nearly  always 
hereditary  Christians,  while  the  greater  number  of 
domestic  servants  seeking  foreigners'  employ  speak 
Frencli. 

The  Sisters  of  St.  Vincent  and  St.  Paul  have  an 
orphanage  beside  the  old  Portuguese  cemetery  outside 
the  west  gate,  where  Fathers  Ricci,  Schaal,  and  Ver- 
beist,  and  those  earlier  scholars  and  propagandists 
who  so  nearly  won  imperial  adherence  to  Christianity 
and  its  establishment  as  the  state  religion,  lie  in  con- 
secrated soil  first  given  by  the  Emperor  Wanli,  who 
erected  an  imperial  tablet  to  Father  Ricci.  The  Em- 
peror Kanghsi  testified  in  Latin  and  in  Chinese  on 
other  turtle-borne  stone  tablets  to  the  virtues  of 
Fathers  Verbeist  and  Schaal.  Dr.  Edkins  has  pre- 
served, in  his  account  of  Peking,  the  description  of 
the  funeral  of  Fatlier  Verbeist,  in  which  Chinese  and 
Christian  rites  were  combined ;  and  near  his  grave  is 
a  great  stone  crucifix,  with  stone  altar-tables  below 
it,  adorned  with  the  conventional  vases,  candlesticks, 
and  incense-burner  of  Buddhist  altars,  provided  at 
all  great  tombs  for  the  annual  homage  or  worship  — 
significant  emblems  of  the  tolerance  of  those  early 
evangelists  and  the  compromises  in  the  faith's  mere 
ritual  and  externals  which  they  conceded  for  conver- 
sion's sake. 

The  Mohammedans  were  most  numerous  in  Kiiblai 
Elhan's  time,  and  their  converts  many.  Kienlung 
built  the  marble  mosque  in  the  Tatar  City  to  please 
his  Turkestan  wife,  widow  of  a  Turkish  prince  of 
Kashgar ;  and  every  Friday,  now,  the  descendants  of 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  163 

her  Turkestan  followers  and  other  of  the  faithful 
gather  there,  but  they  do  not  welcome  the  visitors 
who  ferret  them  out  as  one  of  the  sights  of  Peking/) 
The  twenty  thousand  Mohammedans  in  Peking  are 
accused  of  great  laxity  in  their  religion,  with  sadly 
mixing  Islamism  with  Confucianism,  Taoism,  and 
fung-shui.  Mohammedan  merchants  display  the  cres- 
cent on  their  signs,  but  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca 
and  the  green  turban  do  not  seem  objects  of  their 
ambition. 

A  Russian  mission  was  established  in  Peking  in 
1727  to  care  for  the  souls  of  the  orthodox  prisoners 
from  beyond  the  Amur  River.  The  archimandrite 
gave  up  his  compound  for  legation  use  in  1861,  and 
moved  to  the  Pei-kwan,  in  the  far  northeast  corner  of 
the  Tatar  City.  Active  proselytism  has  never  been  a 
part  of  the  Russian  priests'  work  at  Peking,  but  of 
recent  years  they  have  enlarged  their  college  build- 
ings, where  more  and  more  students  are  enrolled,  and 
the  magnetic  and  astronomic  observatory  and  other 
departments  of  science  directed  by  them  have  a  de- 
servedly high  standing.  Because  they  have  no  active 
missions  in  China,  Russian  ministers  have  always  had 
a  freer  and  a  higher  hand  in  dealing  with  the  Tsung-li 
Yaniun  than  those  envoys  who  themselves  grow  so 
weary  of  their  repeated  visits  on  account  of  mission- 
ary outrages  and  indemnities. 

Protestant  missionaries,  availing  themselves  of  the 
surreptitious  clause  in  the  French  treaty  of  18G0,  were 
soon  established  at  Peking  and  throughout  the  em- 
pire. The  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions  has  a  large  compound  in  the  Tatar 


164  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

City,  with  schools,  chapels,  and  free  dispensaries  in 
other  quarters ;  and  the  Methodist  Mission  includes  a 
university  for  the  higher  education  of  Chinese  youth 
in  Western  sciences,  which  itself  is  an  object-lesson 
of  Western  progress,  and  has  set  more  novelties  before 
Chinese  eyes  and  given  native  Peking  more  to  talk 
and  wonder  about  than  all  the  legations.  The 
London  Mission  has  a  large  hospital  with  outside 
dispensaries,  and  nothing  has  so  opened  the  way  and 
advanced  the  work  of  these  different  missions  as  this 
free  medical  aid.  The  medical  missionary  is  the 
most  influential  worker  in  the  cause  of  enlightenment, 
and  his  ministrations  do  most  to  allay  prejudices,  to 
prove  the  unselfishness  and  sincerity  of  the  mission- 
aries' lives,  and  at  least  to  prepare  the  rising  genera- 
tion to  receive  other  truths.  I  have  often  heard 
discouraged  evangelical  workers  envy  the  ground 
gained,  the  advances  made,  and  the  tangible  results 
that  reward  the  medical  missionaries'  work,  and  lament 
that  for  themselves  there  seems  to  be  so  little  hope  of 
reward  with  this  generation.  "  It  is  only  with  the 
children  of  our  first  converts,  with  the  second  and 
the  third  generation  of  Christians,  that  we  get  great 
encouragement,  that  we  see  the  result  of  our  labors, 
something  accomplished,  something  fixed  fast  in  their 
hearts  and  minds  past  all  chances  of  backsliding," 
say  preachers,  teachers,  and  Bible-readers. 

There  is  a  chapel  of  the  Church  of  England  in  the 
British  legation  compound ;  and,  besides  the  mission 
schools  and  university,  the  Tung-wen  College,  main- 
tained by  the  Chinese  government  for  the  instruction 
of  young  literati  in  Western  languages,  law,  history. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  165 

and  sciences,  necessary  qualifications  for  the  diplo- 
matic service,  has  had  a  certain  influence  for  Chris- 
tianity through  its  president  and  the  instructors,  taken 
from  the  staff  of  different  missions.  Rev.  Gilbert 
Reid,  in  his  independent  mission  to  the  higher  classes, 
attempting  to  reach  them  socially,  has  embarked  on 
a  most  interesting  experiment ;  and  but  for  the  coup 
d'etat  of  1898,  it  was  hoped  that  through  his  efforts 
Christian  teachers  might  again  enjoy  the  power  and 
regard  at  court  that  they  had  at  the  end  of  the  seven- 
teenth century. 

From  the  sixth  to  the  twentieth  century  Christian 
missionaries  have  been  actively  at  work  in  China 
with  varying  fortunes,  and  any  summing  up  of  visible 
results  gives  one  many  problems  to  consider. 


XIII 

TATAR   FUS  AND  FAIRS 

jXE  may  prowl  the  high- walled  lanes  of 
the  Tatar  City  for  weeks  and  contin- 
ually discover  strangely  neglected  fus 
and  temples,  but  there  is  the  greatest 
difficulty  to  learn  their  history  after 
one  has  found  a  clue.  Across  the  canal  from  the 
British  legation  is  the  interesting  old  wreck  of  a 
once  magnificent  palace,  the  Shu-wang-fu,  its  last  oc- 
cupant that  prince  who  conspired  against  the  regency 
of  the  empresses  in  1861.  He  was  arrested  on  his  re- 
turn from  Jehol  and  condemned  to  death  by  slicing ; 
but  the  compassionate  dowagers  commuted  this  to 
decapitation  on  the  common  execution-ground.  His 
family  was  swept  away,  and  the  fu  returned  to  the 
crown.  The  fu  was  available  for  and  should  have 
become  the  American  legation,  but  was  not  taken, 
and  a  few  years'  neglect  transformed  the  once  splen- 
did palace  into  a  wrecked  and  ruinous  estate,  its  di- 
lapidated buildings  sheltering  families  of  the  very 
common  people,  and  its  outer  court  an  open  thor- 
oughfare.    Near  it  is  another  great  inclosure,  about 

166 


TATAR   FUS  AND  FAIRS  167 

which  I  long  cross-questioned  in  vain  those  who  lived 
nearest  its  yellow-tiled  walls.  After  a  few  years' 
residence  in  Peking  the  foreigner  grows  apathetic 
over  Chinese  sights,  but  a  missionary,  living  farther 
away  from  it,  was  able  to  tell  me  that  it  was  the 
"ghost's  temple."  The  beautiful  gabled  roof,  with 
imperial  yellow  tiles  glimmering  among  lofty  tree- 
branches,  shut  fast  in  an  inclosure  whose  gates 
seemed  forever  sealed,  "was  reared  to  the  spirit  of  a 
court  favorite  unjustly  beheaded  by  a  hot-tempered 
emperor,  who  learned  the  truth  after  it  was  too 
late.  The  headless  Manchu  haunted  the  palace,  and 
threatened  to  parade  his  gory  trunk  there  for  all 
time  unless  the  Emperor  should  erect  a  temple  to  his 
memory  and  worship  there  every  New  Year  before 
kneeling  to  the  imperial  tablets.  To  this  latest  day, 
the  erring  Emperor's  successors  have  paid  state  visits 
to  this  memorial  hall,  prayed  and  burned  incense  be- 
fore the  tablet,  and  replaced  the  old  rolls  of  silk  with 
new  offerings. 

When  my  best  benefactress  in  Peking  said  that  she 
would  take  me  to  see  an  old  Tatar  noblewoman  with 
an  irrepressible  curiosity  concerning  foreign  people, 
ways,  and  things,  I  was  delighted  when  we  drove 
across  the  neglected  common  of  the  outer  court  of 
a  dilapidated  old  fu  I  had  been  inquiring  about. 
The  fu  had  been  last  allotted  to  Kienlung's  favorite 
brother.  The  family,  descending  in  rank  and  riches, 
were  out  of  favor  at  court,  but  had  held  on  to  their 
old  home  and  maintained  their  proud  exclusiveness 
and  state  within  the  labyrinth  of  courts.  We  left  our 
carts  at  one  side  of  the  five-bayed  entrance  pavilion. 


168  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

walked  around  it  to  an  inner  court,  up  steep  stone 
stairs  to  a  third  gate,  across  another  court,  and  up  to 
a  fourth  red-walled  pavilion  with  columned  front, 
where  imperial  tablets  hung.  Inside  the  lofty  hall 
were  more  imperial  tablets  and  shrouded  lanterns  on 
each  side  of  the  great  carved  throne-chair  or  divan 
where  Kienlung  often  sat  and  smoked,  and  sipped  his 
tea,  and  possibly  indited  some  one  of  his  thirty-three 
thousand  poems,  or  even  read  over  his  letter  to  Vol- 
taire before  he  sent  it.  Certainly  he  must  often  have 
quoted  there  his  own  immortal  ''Praise  of  Tea,"— 
which  in  exquisite  characters  decorates  half  the  old 
cups  and  plates  and  fans  of  his  period  that  one  finds 
in  curio-shops,— one  of  the  best  known  of  later  poems : 
"  Graceful  are  the  leaves  of  mei-Jwa,  sweetly  scented 
and  clear  are  the  leaves  of  fo-cheou,''^  says  Kienlung, 
"  But  place  upon  a  gentle  fire  the  tripod  whose  color 
and  form  tell  of  a  far  antiquity,  and  fill  it  with  water 
of  molten  snow.  Let  it  seethe  till  it  would  be  hot 
enough  to  whiten  fish  or  to  redden  a  crab.  Then  pour 
it  into  a  cup  made  from  the  earth  of  yue,  upon  the 
tender  leaves  of  a  selected  tea-tree.  Let  it  rest  till  the 
mists  which  freely  rise  have  formed  themselves  into 
thicker  clouds,  and  until  these  have  gradually  ceased 
to  weigh  upon  the  surface,  and  at  last  float  away  in 
vapor,  then  sip  deliberately  the  delicious  liquor.  It 
will  drive  away  all  the  five  causes  of  disquietude 
which  come  to  trouble  us.  You  may  taste,  and  you 
may  feel ;  but  never  can  you  express  in  words  or 
song  that  sweet  tranquillity  we  draw  from  the  essence 
thus  prepared." 
The  wife  of  one  of  the  younger  sons  and  a  flock  of 


AT   TllK   OLD    KU 


TATAR  FUS  AND  FAIRS  171 

little  children,  all  rouged,  beflowered,  and  gorgeously 
dressed,  welcomed  us  in  this  imperial  pavilion,  and 
led  us  on  to  the  fifth  great  flagged  court,  where  lattice- 
windowed  dwelling-rooms  lined  each  side,  and  the 
noble  ancestral  hall  or  main  pavilion  on  a  terrace 
filled  the  end.  This  great  building,  \\ath  green-tiled 
roof,  green  tiles  facing  the  walls  to  a  height  of  six 
feet,  and  massive  red-lacquered  columns  supporting 
the  roof,  was  all  but  a  ruin,  but  it  sunned  itself 
against  the  brilliant  October  sky  with  a  splendid  and 
commanding  dignity. 

In  that  gray  old  stone  court  there  was  gathered 
such  a  dazzling  group  of  women  as  made  me  doubt 
my  eyes  and  forget  everything  in  looking.  The 
gracious  old  Tai-tai  (madame),  in  long  plum-and- 
purple  robes,  had  a  strong,  kindly  face  and  the  deep, 
rich  voice  of  undoubted  command.  Her  eye  and  smile 
led  to  friendship,  and  her  cordial  greetings  had  all  of 
Celestial  imagery  and  intensity.  Her  dark  gown  and 
sober-tinted  hair-bouquets  were  in  contrast  to  those  of 
her  daughters-in-law  and  grandchildren,  who  rivaled 
the  rainbow,  all  the  gay  colors  intensified  by  the 
dazzling  sunshine.  Each  pale-yellow,  aristocratic 
face  was  rouged  and  tinted  to  a  work  of  art;  each 
lower  lip  had  a  prim,  piquant  stain  of  deep  carmine. 
Each  beautiful  figure  bent  in  a  stately  Manchu  cour- 
tesy, sinking  low  with  clasped  hands  resting  on  the  left 
knee,  and  each  then  gave  us  a  few  cold,  thin  fingers  for 
a  Western  barbarian  hand-shake.  Each  of  these  blue- 
blooded  Tatars,  Manchns  of  the  purest  lineage,  was 
more  brilliantly  picturesque  than  the  other ;  each  lifted 
up  on  stilt  or  flower-pot  shoes,  whose  three-inch  soles 


172  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

were  hidden  by  their  long  gowns.  Their  robes  were 
of  brocade,  embroidered  satin,  or  plain  silk  quilted  in 
finest  lines  and  herring-bone  rays,  and  bordered  around 
with  those  conventional  and  arbitrary  ribbon  bands 
in  which  lies  all  the  style  and  changing  fashion  of  a 
Chinese  woman's  dress.  Short,  sleeveless  Manchu 
jackets  gave  contrasting  touches  to  some  of  the  gowns, 
and  each  head  was  a  monumental  affair  of  blue-black 
hair  with  zigzag  partings,  and  with  a  flower-garden  bal- 
anced beside  either  end  of  the  broad  gold  hair-pin.  One 
Manchu  matron  caught  the  sunshine  with  a  glistening, 
golden-green,  finely  quilted  gown  and  a  gold-thread 
bolero  jacket ;  another's  dull,  rich  mulberry-red  satin 
was  wrought  over  with  sprigs  and  circles  of  flowers; 
and  a  third  wore  a  black  satin  robe  with  clouds  of  the 
most  brilliant  butterflies  winging  their  way  across  it. 
It  was  a  clothes-show  beyond  compare,  and  the  daz- 
zling group  in  that  sun -flooded  old  court  made  one 
wonder  what  the  imperial  palace  groups  could  be, 
since  this  was  but  one  yellow- girdled,  green-tiled 
family  of  dilapidated  fortunes. 

After  we  had  explored  the  deserted  hall,  admired 
the  pots  of  ragged  chrysanthemums  and  the  white- 
and-brown  Pekingese  pugs,  and  photographed  away 
all  the  film  in  my  camera,  we  were  shown  the  living- 
rooms.  The  cabinet  or  library  of  the  absent  master 
was  severely  simple  in  its  furnishings — scroll-pictures 
and  texts  on  the  wall,  a  few  pieces  of  old  porcelain  on 
a  console,  and  books  stacked  on  the  shelves  above  the 
long  divan,  or  kang,  wliicli  extended  across  the  win- 
dowed end  of  the  room.  This  stone-and-mud  plat- 
form of  the  kang,  tliree  feet  in  height,  is  heated  in 


TATAR  FUS  AND  FAIRS         173 

winter  by  brush  fires  built  from  an  opening  on  the 
outside,  the  smoke  and  heated  air  following  intricate 
flues  which  thoroughly  warm  the  kang.  It  is  a  Mon- 
gol or  Central  Asian  contrivance  used  everywhere  in 
North  China  and  Korea,  and  with  thick  felts  and  soft 
rugs  makes  a  luxurious  sleeping-  and  lounging-place 
in  winter,  while  with  cool  mattings  it  is  equally  luxu- 
rious in  another  way  in  the  scorching  summers.  We 
were  shown  rooms  with  great  carved  wardrobes,  where 
the  heaps  of  fur  and  silk  and  summer  garments  are 
stored  in  turn ;  and  on  that  day  the  ladies  brought 
out  their  winter  hats  for  the  season's  wear,  Tatar 
turbans  with  saucer  brims,  and  long  ribbon  ends 
that  fall  below  the  waist  at  the  back.  The  great  gold 
hair-pin  cannot  be  worn  with  this  winter  hat,  and 
with  a  dexterous  twist  of  the  red  cords  a  maid  lifted 
oif  the  whole  great  structure  on  the  Tai-tai's  head, 
fastened  the  hat  in  its  place,  and  tucked  two  small 
bouquets  just  above  the  ears.  All  classes  in  China 
dress  by  imperial  command,  and  when  the  Peking 
Gazette  announces  that  the  Emperor  has  put  on 
his  winter  hat  on  a  day  prescribed  by  centuries'  un- 
varying astronomical  custom,  all  China  does  likewise 
and  turns  over  the  chair  cushions,  exposing  their 
'^  winter  side." 

When  we  were  seated,  with  strict  regard  for  prece- 
dence, at  a  square  table,  the  Tai-tai  served  us  with 
her  own  silver  and  ivory  chop-sticks  to  the  half- 
dozen  kinds  of  cakes  and  fruits  grouped  on  com- 
potiers  around  a  centerpiece  of  gorgeously  colored 
persimmons.  A  crowd  of  maid-servants  brought  tea, 
and  in  turn  served  us  with  a  delicate  cream  or  sweet 


174  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

pur^e  of  almonds,  some  steamed  dumplings  with 
minced  chicken  inclosed,  thin  sesame  wafers,  honeyed 
fruits,  candied  nuts,  white  pears,  and  big  round  grapes 
worthy  of  Fontainebleau's  vines.  The  cups  of  per- 
fumed tea  were  filled  and  refilled,  hot  cloths  were 
passed  in  lieu  of  finger-bowls,  and  then,  with  shadows 
slanting  far  across  the  great  court,  we  began  our  leave- 
taking,  and  repeated  it  to  a  diminishing  company 
at  each  gateway,  until  only  the  little  children  were 
left  near  the  outer  court  gate  to  drop  us  the  last 
stately  Manchu  courtesies. 

"  Three  eunuchs  came  and  talked  to  me,"  said  my 
awe-struck  servant,  brought  almost  to  humility  by 
this  nearness  to  greatness  and  my  entree  to  good 
society.  "  They  must  still  be  high  people  here  at  the 
fu,  even  if  the  master  has  lost  his  job  at  the  palace." 

I  spent  yet  another  afternoon  tea-drinking  with 
the  kindly  old  Tai-tai  and  her  daughters-in-law,  pho- 
tographing certain  interested  friends  asked  in  for 
the  afternoon  to  look  at  us,  the  Tai-tai's  latest  curios. 
These  were  haughty  and  hot-tempered  Tatar  ladies, 
who  made  little  secret  of  their  opinion  of  us  and  our 
civilization,  and  led  us  to  appreciate  more  how  rare  a 
character  was  our  kindly,  gracious  hostess.  They 
had  opinions,  too,  these  vi-siting  Manchu  ladies,  and 
we  had  an  inkling  of  the  fierce  antipathies  at  heart 
when  one  said  of  a  Chinese  diplomatic  family :  '*  Oh, 
yes ;  but  he  is  a  Chinese  from  the  south  provinces. 
You  could  n't  expect  his  wife  have  any  nice  manners." 

When  a  return  visit  was  arranged,  the  Tai-tai's 
carts  drew  up  at  the  gate  at  the  stroke  of  the  hour, 
the  mules  were  unharnessed  and  led  away,  and  with  the 


TATAE  FUS  AND  FAIRS  175 

cart-shafts  dropped,  the  ladies  stepped  out  with  dig- 
nity and  safety.  Nothing  could  exceed  their  amia- 
bility, their  gracious  inquiries  and  compliments,  their 
interest  in  all  the  arrangements  of  a  foreign  house? 
from  which,  by  the  way,  all  men-servants  were  ban- 
ished for  the  time.  Their  own  maid-servants  accom- 
panied them,  one  bearing  a  silver  spittoon.  Amused 
as  they  were  with  each  implement  and  oddity  at  table, 
they  carried  themselves  with  the  perfect  ease  of  the 
well  bred  and  the  people  of  assured  position  in  any 
country.  They  were  so  many  exquisitely  mannered 
children,  with  a  naive,  unconcealed  interest  in  every- 
thing, yet  the  perfect  dignity  of  Manchu  grand  dames 
never  forsook  them.  The  sugar  made  from  the  ma- 
ple-tree, the  chocolate  cake  built  in  many-striped 
stories,  and  the  rich  black  fruit-cake  were  so  many 
new  sensations,  verifications  of  tales  told  them. 
Through  one  of  her  progressive  sons,  who  read  for- 
eign books,  had  a  camera  and  dangerously  advanced 
ideas,  the  old  Tai-tai  had  heard  of  many  queer  things 
in  the  Western  world.  Although  old  customs  and 
superstitions  were  strong,  and  she  would  take  Chinese 
potions,  philters,  and  charm-powders,  she  yet  had  a 
great  respect  for  foreign  doctors,  for  the  earnest,  un- 
selfish women  who  conduct  mission  hospitals  and  dis- 
pensaries in  Peking.  Her  doctor  told  me  of  the 
difficulties  of  attending  these  women  of  the  aristo- 
cratic class,  who  never  walk  or  take  exercise,  but  sit 
in  cold,  sunless  rooms,  weighted  down  with  heavy 
clothing,  consuming  quantities  of  sweets,  and  smok- 
ing opium  as  steadily  as  their  means  allow. 

"What  in  the  world  can  such  uneducated,  secluded 


176  CHINA:  THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIKE 

women  find  to  talk  about  all  the  year  round  ? "  I  asked 
the  little  doctor. 

^'  Much,"  she  answered.  "  The  last  time  I  went 
there   they  were  discussing   the   X-rays." 

"  What !  "  I  exclaimed,  *'  have  the  Rontgen  rays  pen- 
etrated even  the  five  courts  and  walls  of  the  old  f u  ? " 

"  Oh,  certainly.  Her  son  had  been  telling  the  Tai- 
tai  of  the  cathode  miracles,  and  she  asked  me  if  it 
was  true  that  foreigners  had  another  light  to  see  by 
at  night,  that  was  so  much  stronger  than  Sir  Robert 
Hart's  gas-jets  or  the  '  lightning  light '  at  the  palace 
that  we  could  look  through  the  human  body  and  see 
all  the  bones ;  and— here  was  the  point— did  I  believe 
that  Li  Hung  Chang  had  gone  to  a  foreign  doctor, 
who  had  turned  this  light  on  him  and  actually  seen 
that  bullet  that  Li  Hung  Chang  said  a  Japanese  had 
fired  into  himf" 

One  day  the  doctor  brought  to  the  fu  the  chate- 
laine of  a  legation  who  had  lived  in  Peking  for  thir- 
teen years  without  ever  visiting  or  receiving  a  visit 
from  a  Manchu  or  a  Chinese  lady.  Her  entree  to  this 
one  social  circle  of  the  capital  that  should  have  openly 
welcomed  her  arrival  so  long  before  was  informal 
and  unofficial,  but  the  Tai-tai  gave  a  cordial  greeting, 
and  all  went  pleasantly.  "  How  many  children  have 
you,  and  grandchildren  ? "  both  asked  each  other,  but 
when  the  foreign  tai-tai  explained  that  one  grand- 
son was  her  son's  child  and  the  other  her  daughter's 
cliild,  the  Manchu  matron  said  :  "  No,  no ;  that  can- 
not be.  That  is  not  your  grandchild.  Your  son's 
child  is  your  grandchikl,  yes ;  your  daughter's  child, 
no.     That  child  belongs  to  her  husband's  parents  and 


TKAINEU   BIKDS. 


TATAE  FUS  AND  FAIRS  179 

the  other  family.  It  is  their  gi-andchild,  uot  yours. 
Of  course  Li  Hung  Chang  and  Chang  Yen  Hoon  told 
you  the  same  thing." 

The  point  was  argued  for  a  while,  and  then  the 
hostess,  yielding  graciously  to  her  obligations,  said : 
'*  Oh,  yes ;  if  you  wish,  you  can,  of  course,  claim  it 
as  a  grandchild.  An  outside  grandchild,  we  should 
call  it.  But  if  you  call  them  all  your  grandchildren, 
how  about  inheriting  property?  Do  you  want  any 
of  it  to  go  to  some  strange  family,  and  your  sons  get 
very  little  ?  How  would  you  like  that  ? "  assuming 
that  equal  consideration  for  sons  and  daughters  could 
only  be  an  accidental  instance  of  great  affection,  and 
not  American  law  and  custom. 

"We  are  friends  forever,"  said  the  dear  old  Tai- 
tai  when  I  went  to  bid  her  good-by.  "  I  spend  my 
heart  upon  you.  My  heart  speaks  your  language, 
but  not  my  poor  tongue.  Come  back  to  me  some- 
time again.  Do  not  forget  the  old  Tai-tai  and  the 
poor,  miserable  f  u  you  have  honored  to  enter." 

I  had,  indeed,  looked  forward  to  revisiting  the  same 
old,  green-tiled  fu,  and  seeing  there  again  groups  of 
gorgeously  dressed,  gracious  Manchu  women ;  but 
word  came  at  the  time  of  the  coup  d'etat  that  the 
fu  had  been  claimed  as  site  for  a  college  of  foreign 
studies  by  the  Emperor's  reform  favorites,  and  that 
Kienlung's  great-great-grandnephew  had  sought  less 
splendid  quarters  out  by  the  Anting  Gate.  The  old 
fu  was  laid  low,  and  nothing  has  risen  in  its  place. 

When  one  is  a  little  hardened  to  it,  he  may  dare  to 
enter  one  of  the  local  temple  fairs,  which  are  always 


180  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

occurring  somewhere  about  the  city,  since  each  tem- 
ple has  its  anniversary  fete-days,  and  at  least  once  a 
month  bursts  forth  with  more  red  papers,  lanterns, 
and  incense-sticks,  peddlers  and  crowds.  The  best 
known  of  these  popular  fairs  is  that  at  the  Lung-fu- 
ssu  Temple,  near  the  Confucian  Temple.  On  the 
ninth  and  tenth,  nineteenth  and  twentieth,  twenty- 
ninth  and  thirtieth  days  of  each  month,  the  street 
leading  to  the  temple  was  taken  possession  of  by  holi- 
day crowds,  peddlers,  fakers,  and  touts,  and  there 
were  kaleidoscopic  pictures  of  all  Pekingese  Ufe. 
Bird-sellers  offered  one  every  kind  of  feathered  pet 
that  could  swing  in  a  cage  or  perch  on  a  twig,  and  one 
of  the  attractive  features  of  Peking  streets  is  in  the 
numbers  of  men  and  boys  whom  one  sees  carrying  pet 
birds  about.  It  is  a  Chinese  custom,  at  which  many 
Manchus  affect  to  sneer,  but  it  argues  for  gentle, 
poetic  traits  of  character  that  one  would  otherwise 
surely  deny  these  hard-featured,  unattractive  people. 
Old  poetry  and  old  pictures  show  men  of  the  lower 
provinces  carrying  their  nightingales  off  for  an  airing 
to  some  hill  temple  or  classic  vale ;  but  in  Peking 
grimy  and  tattered  old  men,  little  boys,  and  even  gay 
official  messengers,  go  about  the  streets  with  tiny 
birds  on  twigs.  The  grace  and  fearlessness,  the  pretty 
flights  to  shoulder  and  hand  of  these  uncaged  pets 
are  most  engaging,  and  tell  of  kindly  treatment. 

"Why  don't  you  get  a  little  bird  and  carry  it 
around  with  you  ?"  I  asked  the  huge,  blunt,  bluff 
Liu,  my  manly  boy,  with  the  port  and  mien  of  pros- 
perous rascality,  the  meditative  face  and  somnolent 
features  of  the  Buddha  in  art. 


TATAR  PUS  AND  FAIRS  183 

"Because  I  am  uot  loafer.  I  am  not  Manchu," 
came  the  answer,  in  measured  bass  tones  of  scorn. 

On  the  street  approaching  Lung-fu-ssu  one  en- 
counters the  first  of  the  fair,  and  there  may  buy  pet 
crickets,  black  little  skeletons  of  things,  which  are 
trained,  and  fight  as  gamely  as  Manila  cocks.  One 
maj'  buy,  too,  airy  bamboo  boxes  to  keep  them  in  in 
summer,  and  thicker  boxes  which  cricket-fanciers 
carry  in  the  folds  of  their  garments  to  keep  the  tiny 
creatures  warm  in  winter. 

For  some  unaccountable  reason,  the  feather-duster 
is  an  important  and  conspicuous  article  of  trade  in 
Peking.  One  sees  it  hawked  at  every  fair  and  in  every 
street,  a  presence  nearly  as  surprising  as  if  one  met 
soap  in  monumental  heaps  everywhere  in  this  city  of 
dreadful  dirt.  There  is  dire  need  of  it,  since  all  the 
year  round,  save  for  the  few  weeks  of  mud,  one  moves 
in  and  breathes  a  cloud  of  dust,  pulverized  particles 
of  the  richly  composite  street  soil.  Occasionally  there 
are  legitimate  dust-storms,  when  certain  winds  lift 
the  surface  dirt  from  the  Desert  of  Gobi,  fill  the  heavens 
with  a  dense  fog-cloud,  and  dim  the  sun  ;  and  in  Peking 
there  is  sound  of  the  gnashing  of  teeth.  These  storms 
from  the  desert  partly  account  for  the  begrimed,  dilapi- 
dated look  of  all  outdoor  Peking,  for  not  even  the 
Paris  municipal  council  could  keep  that  exquisite  city 
clean  if  the  Desert  of  Gobi,  or  Shamo,  lay  to  wind- 
ward. 

One  has  to  step  quickly  in  this  street  before  Lung- 
fu-ssu,  comprehending  all  in  swift  glances,  buying  as 
well  as  reading  as  he  runs ;  for  if  one  loiters,  the 
crowd  closes  in  around  him,  packed  ten  and  twenty 

10 


184 


CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 


rows  deep,  in  a  gaping,  jabbering  circle.  Several 
times  I  went  into  and,  by  main  force  only,  got  out  of 
a  florist's  garden,  where  dwarf  trees,  ragged  chrysan- 
themums grafted  on  artendsia  stalks,  and  some  cocks- 
combs were  shown.  Nothing  in 
Peking  was  more  disappointing 
and  disillusioning  than  the  vain 
autumnal  search  I  made  for 
chrysanthemums  worthy  to  rank 
with  those  of  Japan  or  those  of  the 
foreign  settlement  of  Shanghai. 
Things  old  and  new,  for  use 
and  ornament,  were  spread  over 
the  flagged  courts  and  the  terrace 
walks  and  on  booths.  Fortune- 
tellers, money-changers,  letter- 
writers,  professional  menders, 
cobblers,  barbers,  and  dentists 
were  there.  Quack  doctors 
spread  out  their  magic  pills  and 
bottles  of  eye-water,  while  the 
legitimate  old  school  of  Chinese 
medicine  was  represented  by 
apothecaries,  who  made  tempt- 
ing spread  o^the  time-honored 
roots  and  herbs,  musk, dried  rats, 
lizards,  frogs,  and  toads,  clots  of  so-called  dragon's 
blood,  and  lumps  of  nameless  things  waiTanted  to 
cure,  although  powdered  tliiekly  with  tlie  microbes, 
germs,  bacteria,  and  what  not,  that  constitute  Peking 
dust.  The  hot-chestnut  man  spiced  the  air  with  his 
nuts  roasted  in  shallow  pans  full  of  black  sand  set 


HONKYKI)  CKAB-APPLES. 


TATAR  FUS  AND  FAIRS  185 

over  a  mud-oven  fireplace— the  same  institution  of  all 
Central  Asia,  and  which  the  tourist  meets  again  in  the 
bazaars  of  Peshawar.  The  hot-peanut  man  was  there 
too ;  and  in  Peking  the  American  learns  that  salted 
almonds  and  peanuts  are  Chinese  inventions  almost 
as  old  as  gunpowder.  The  cold-slaw  man  presided  over 
great  bowls  of  tasseled  strips  of  cabbage,  that  he 
sheared  off  with  fascinating  skill  with  a  huge  cleaver. 
There  were  mounds  of  the  famous  white  Peking  pears, 
of  the  fine  large  grapes,  that  they  know  how  to  keep  for 
a  year  by  an  ancient  cold-storage  system  of  pottery  jars 
buried  in  the  ground,  and  heaps  of  gorgeous  red- 
orange  persimmons,  that  made  color-studies  of  de- 
light. The  persimmon  grown  most  commonly  for  the 
Peking  market  is  a  huge  sphere,  very  much  flattened 
at  the  poles,  with  the  most  curious  fold  or  seam  at  the 
equator  line,  as  if  it  had  been  cut  and  had  grown  to- 
gether again.  The  rich,  dried  fruit  of  the  jujube-tree, 
with  its  narrow,  pointed  seed  like  a  date,  and  com- 
monly known  as  the  Tientsin  date,  was  offered  us  in 
boxes  or  beaten  into  smooth,  rich  jujube  paste.  Then 
there  was  the  crab-apple  man,  with  a  great  broom  on 
his  shoulder,  that  proved  to  have  every  straw  strung 
with  crab-apples  preserved  in  honey— a  favorite  sweet 
with  the  Mongolians  beyond  the  Great  Wall,  who 
knew  how  to  preserve  their  tart  fruits  in  honey  long 
before  the  peasants  around  Bar-le-Duc  began  to 
immerse  their  currants  in  honey.  There  was  the 
candyman,  with  slabs  of  peanut  candy  and  sesame 
brittle,  the  latter  the  same  sesame-seeds,  cooked  in  a 
rich  sorghum  syrup  and  cooled  in  thin  cakes,  that 
furnish  that  wafer  of  delight  known  as  (/t<jacl-  in  the 


186  CHINA:   THE   LONG-LIVED   EMPIRE 

Pan  jab,  and  that  one  buys  in  the  cold  weather  all 
over  northern  India.  The  Mongols  and  the  Moguls 
took  with  them  in  their  conquests  the  love  of 
sweets  which  the  Turks,  the  Persians,  and  all  the 
people  of  Central  Asia  still  manifest,  and  by  their 
sweets  one  may  trace  the  path  of  the  conquering 
khans.  Besides  sesame  brittle,  one  may  buy  delicate 
sesame  wafers,  the  sesame  flour  beaten  in  water  with 
either  salt  or  sugar,  and  baked  in  a  thin  wafer  that 
might  well  be  introduced  at  fastidious  tables  on  the 
other  side  of  the  globe.  One  sees  macaroni,  made  of 
millet  or  buckwheat  flour,  in  process  of  manufacture 
everywhere  about  Peking  streets,  hanks  and  skeins  of 
the  doughy  filaments  swinging  by  doorways  in  the 
sun  and  wind,  and  acquiring  a  fine  bloom  of  the 
richly  composite  dust  of  the  streets. 

To  the  Lung-fu-ssu  fairs  I  went  again  and  again, 
bewitched  by  the  life  and  movement  that  went  on  in 
the  courts  of  the  dingy -red,  roofless  temple  of  deserted 
altars.  I  went  to  watch  the  Manchu  women  in  their 
holiday  dress,  to  look  for  the  fabled  sleeve  dogs,  or 
buy  chrysanthemums  and  pigeon  whistles,  the  latter 
the  most  unique  and  ingenious  playthings  in  Peking. 
The  pigeon  whistle  is  made  of  thinnest  bamboo  and 
of  little  gourds  scraped  to  paper  thinness,  and  when 
fastened  beneath  the  tail-feathers  of  a  pigeon  the  tiny 
organ-pipes  emit  a  weird,  elfin,  /Eolian  melody  as  the 
bird  flies.  Every  morning  and  afternoon  the  vault 
of  the  Peking  sky  is  swept  with  the  sweet,  sad  notes 
of  scores  of  pigeon  whistles,  as  the  carrier-birds  wing 
their  way  across  tlie  walls  with  bankei's  messages  and 
quotations  of  silver  sales— a  stock  report  and  ticker 


TATAR  FUS  AND  FAIRS         187 

service  older  than  the  telegraph  and  automatic  tape,  ''' 
a  system  of  market  reports  as  old  as  time.  These 
swirls  and  sweeps  of  melody  were  strangely  sad  and 
thrilling,  and  the  whistling  flight  of  these  musical 
pigeons,  the  ''  mid-sky  houris  "  of  the  hoary  East,  was 
something  that  I  waited  and  listened  for  each  day. 
There  are  some  twenty  kinds  of  pigeon  whistles, 
ranging  from  the  simple,  single  bamboo  tube  of  one 
stop  to  those  with  elaborate  sets  of  pipes  which  a 
musical-instrument  maker  might  admire.  Each  bam- 
boo pipe  or  gourd  whistle  is  as  light  as  thistle-down, 
and  if  one  even  holds  it  in  his  hand  and  sweeps  the 
air,  it  responds  with  mellow  wind-notes  of  weird 
charm.  The  pigeon  whistle  is  the  most  delicate  and 
exquisitely  constructed  toy  imaginable,  a  thing  one 
might  expect  to  find  in  Tokio  or  Paris,  but  never  in 
half -barbaric  Peking,  the  city  of  dreadful  dirt,  of  the 
clumsy  cart  and  the  rocking  camel,  the  dilapidated 
capital  of  Kublai  Khan,  the  racked  and  ruined  relic 
of  the  splendid  city  of  the  Ming  emperors. 


I'IGEON    WHISTLES. 


xrv 

CHINESE   PEKING 

jHE  contrasts  that  present  themselves 
when  one  passes  through  the  gates  from 
the  Tatar  to  the  Chinese  City  are  not 
the  least  in  the  snm  of  dazzling  impres- 
sions Peking  makes  ii})on  one,  Lord 
Curzon's  "  phantasmagoria  of  excruciating  incident." 
Once  through  the  Chien-men's  vast,  barrel  vaults, 
across  the  dirt  and  beggar-incrusted  marble  bridge,  a 
great,  broad  avenue  passes  under  elaborate  pailows, 
and  continues  for  two  miles  southward  to  the  Temple 
of  Heaven  — a  noble,  flagged  w^ay  fit  for  imperial 
pomps  and  processions.  But  there  is  not  another 
broad  or  paved  thoroughfare  in  all  the  Chinese  City. 
Narrow  lanes,  with  banks  of  refuse  against  the  house 
Avails,  where  cart-wheels  have  cut  deep  mud-troughs, 
intersect  the  crowded  city,  and  there  are  gates  to  each 
city  ward,  as  in  Chinese  cities  to  southward.  Few 
women  are  seen,  and  they  hobble  on  painful  stumps 
of  feet,  and  glue  their  hair  into  absurd  and  inartistic 
imitations  of  the  magpie's  or  "  joy-l)ird"s"  tail, 
wretched    contrasts    to    tlie    splendid,   free-stepping 

188 


CHINESE   PEKING  189 

Manchu  women  with  their  picturesque  bar  pins  and 
big  bouquets.  The  custom  of  foot-binding  is  as  uni- 
versal here  at  the  gates  of  the  capital  as  if  the  Em- 
press, the  palace,  and  the  Tatar  City  full  of  Manchu 
women  did  not  take  comfort  and  pride  in  possessing 
natural,  useful  feet ;  as  if  imperial  edicts  had  not  for- 
bidden foot-binding  centuries  ago.  It  was  easy  for 
the  Manchu  conquerors  to  impose  the  queue  as  a  mark 
of  subjugation  upon  all  the  millions  of  Chinese  men, 
and  make  that  appendage  almost  a  matter  of  religion 
with  them.  To  change  the  Chinese  woman's  mind 
as  to  the  fashion  of  her  foot  was  another  task. 

That  covered,  curving,  semicircular  bazaar  that 
follows  the  line  of  the  Chien-men's  great  outer  wall 
is  a  most  Oriental  feature,  a  real  Central  and  Western 
Asian  bazaar.  One  may  buy  there  caps  and  cap-but- 
tons, mandarins'  belt-buckles  of  gold,  brass,  enamel, 
and  jade,  their  beads  and  belts  and  plastrons  of  rank ; 
also  the  womanish  pipe-,  fan-,  tobacco-,  watch-,  spec- 
tacle-, and  money-pouches  of  embroidered  satin  that 
the  petticoated  grandees  hang  in  dazzling  bunches 
from  their  girdles  in  lieu  of  practical,  masculine  pock- 
ets. One  may  also  buy  pipes  and  snuff-bottles,  hair- 
pins and  ornaments,  the  toys  of  the  writing-desk, 
jade  bracelets  and  ear-rings  and  charms ;  and  even  in 
this  day  of  careful  gleaning  by  professional  buyers, 
the  amateur  sometimes  finds  a  treasure.  Misery  over- 
flows from  the  marble  bridge,  and  beggars,  lepers,  and 
loathsome  wretches  cling  to  the  sunny  curve  of  the 
outer  wall  like  hideous  flies.  One  sees  enough  in  that 
one  spot  to  jjrove  that  China  is  the  greatest  field  for 
active  philanthropy  the  world  holds,  and  the  sum  of 


190  CHINA:   THE   LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

suffering,  the  accumulation  of  misery  there  presented, 
makes  one's  heart  sick  with  the  hopelessness  of  it  all, 
the  utter  impossibility  of  relief.  Wrecks  of  men, 
emaciated  or  bloated,  in  the  last  stages  of  starvation's 
diseases,  crawl  to  one's  very  cart-wheels,  or  lie  help- 
less with  glazed  eyes.  In  the  keen,  sparkling  October 
days  they  huddle  together  in  the  sun  to  keep  warm, 
many  of  them  with  only  a  bit  of  straw  matting  for 
bodily  covering,  and  after  each  piercing  night  dead 
beggars  are  carted  away  as  a  matter  of  course.  Pe- 
king claims  eighty  thousand  beggars  among  its  popu- 
lation, and  it  is  said  that  this  gild  has  its  officers 
and  its  regulations  quite  as  much  as  the  recognized 
gild  of  beggars  in  Canton.  The  so-eaUed  King  of 
the  Beggars  has  his  headquarters  on  the  marble 
bridge,  and  there  are  always  several  truculent  ruffians 
there  who  have  more  the  air  of  poAver  than  of  pleading. 
One  must  enjoy  the  story  as  the  delightful  old  father 
tells  it,  and  not  seek  to  find  or  know  any  more  about 
the  famous  feather-bed  lodging-house  of  the  Peking 
beggars  that  Abbe  Hue  describes.  As  the  beggars  stole 
the  coverings  at  their  lodging-house,  some  keen  one 
devised  a  single  great  felt  coverlet  the  size  of  the 
floor,  with  holes  for  the  sleepers'  heads.  It  was  raised 
and  lowered  by  tackle,  a  tom-tom  sounding  an  alarm 
each  morning  to  warn  the  lodgers  to  get  their  heads 
in  under  the  coverlet.  Beneath  this  great  communal 
bedspread  the  area  was  covered  thickly  with  loose 
feathers.  Only  a  missionary  could  expect  credence 
for  such  a  tale  on  its  first  telling,  and  I  found  no  one 
who  knew  more  than  the  charniing  old  abbe  relates. 
The  east  side  of  the  groat  Meridian  Street,  running 


CHINESE  PEKING  191 

through  the  Chinese  City,  is  lined  for  the  first  half- 
mile  beyond  the  bridge  with  the  stalls  of  the  fish, 
game,  meat,  and  vegetable  market  of  Peking ;  and  the 
next  street  running  parallel  with  it  holds  the  nut  and 
dried-fruit  market,  where  the  hot-chestnut  man  and 
the  hot-peanut  man  are  triumphant.  Beans  of  infi- 
nite variety  offer  intellectual  diet  to  people  to  whom 
rice  is  a  luxury,  and,  with  the  unvaried  pork  and  cab- 
bage, constitute  their  staple  food. 

Still  farther  east  of  Chien-men's  broad  street  are 
Bamboo  Chair  Street  and  other  sewery  side  lanes, 
where*  dealers  in  furs,  old  embroideries,  and  second- 
hand clothing  abide.  The  old-clothes  market,  held  on 
an  open  common  every  morning  from  daylight  until 
nine  o'clock,  is  one  of  the  sights  of  Peking  that  bears 
many  repetitions.  There  is  a  permanent  old-clothes 
bazaar  surrounding  the  open  market  space,  and  the 
rows  of  alcove  shops  are  so  many  silk-  and  satin-lined 
grottoes,  all  speciously  dazzling  with  color  and  tin- 
sel. In  the  early  morning  the  whole  common  is  cov- 
ered with  piles  of  silk  and  furred  and  gorgeous 
garments,  that  have  often  been  stolen  before  they 
were  pawned  to  these  shrewd  '*  uncles."  The  coup 
d'ceil  is  brilliant  and  striking,  the  sheen  and  shimmer 
of  rich  fabrics  in  tlie  Peking  sunshine  is  bewitching; 
but,  prowl  as  he  may,  the  tourist  finds  no  decorative 
treasures  at  the  fair,  since  the  professional  buyers 
have  gleaned  before  him,  ready  to  hawk  any  desirable 
objects  around  the  legations,  and  flaunt  them  at  the 
grand  gathering  of  all  such  purveyors  in  the  hotel 
garden  court  at  noon.  Tlie  show  of  furs  is  a  rich 
one,   but,   tempting   as  the    greatcoats    and   grand- 


192  CHINA:  THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

motherly  cloaks  of  tlie  mandarins  may  seem,  with  their 
linings  of  sable  and  mink,  ermine  and  squirrel,  white 
fox  and  Tibetan  goat,  second-hand  Chinese  fur  admits 
of  too  many  possibilities  for  foreigners  to  be  tempted 
to  buy.  The  old-clothes  merchants  are  usually  fold- 
ing up  their  goods  when  foreigners  arrive  on  the 
scene,  but  some  uncle  will  beckon  one  away  through 
side  slums  and  garbaged  lanes  to  his  own  particular 
labj'rinth  of  stone  passages  and  courts,  and  show  one 
his  store-room  filled  with  official  costumes,  great 
curtains,  palace  and  yamun  hangings,  and  plun- 
der. Tribute  sables,  ermines,  and  finest  skins  in 
bunches  as  they  came  from  imperial  storehouses, 
even  the  yellow  satin  uniforms  of  the  Emperor's 
attendants,  the  cloth-of-gold  robes  of  the  Empress,  cov- 
ered with  seed-pearl  dragons,  and  the  plienix  door- 
curtains  of  her  priv^ate  apartments,  have  been  offered 
for  sale  with  no  questions  asked.  Remembering  the 
grisly  tales  of  what  befell  certain  other  dealers  in  im- 
perial effects  and  palace  loot,  one  buys  and  flies,  and 
locks  the  treasures  out  of  Chinese  sight.  The  neigh- 
borhood is  (Crowded  with  the  hidden  homes  of  such 
pawnbrokers  and  the  infragrant  homes  of  fur-dealers, 
who  cure  and  dress  their  fine  sheepskins  and  Tibetan 
goatskins  at  their  doors,  reserving  no  secrets  in  the 
processes,  from  the  stretching,  washing,  and  scraping 
to  the  final  dressing  with  coarse  chalk,  which,  beaten 
out  after  a  few  days'  bleaching,  fills  tlie  air  with 
clouds  of  poisonous  dust. 

Although  furs  are  coniparativ^ely  cheap  and  are 
almost  a  necessity  in  this  cliniato,  not  all  the  people 
can  afford  them.     Each   INIanehu  bannerman  has  a 


CHINESE   PEKING  193 

sheepskin  coat  provided  him,  but  the  masses  of  Chi- 
nese wear  only  wadded  cotton,  rarely  any  woolen 
garments,  and  with  advancing  winter  weigh  them- 
selves down  with  more  and  more  clumsy  wadding, 
with  "  cotton  overcoats,"  as  they  call  them. 

Silk  rugs  and  silky  rugs  of  the  inner  wool  of  the 
Tibetan  goat  come  from  Tibet  and  the  Ordos  coun- 
try—temple carpets  or  Tibetan  rugs,  as  the  dealers 
call  them,  exquisite  velvety  products  of  Central  Asian 
looms,  real  works  of  art.  The  Mongolian  sheep's  wool 
and  camel's  wool  come  to  this  quarter  also,  and  there 
are  weavers  of  carpets  in  Peking  who  are  slowly  com- 
ing down  to  the  Tientsin  level,  exchanging  the  old  con- 
ventional key  patterns,  the  seal  characters,  the  bats  and 
butterflies  of  longevity  for  leaves,  flowers,  and  scrolls 
and  pointer-dogs  woven  in  aniline  colors.  Silk  rugs 
of  long,  loose  nap  are  woven  also  for  one  dollar  and 
a  half  the  square  foot,  and  even  more  for  those  of 
close,  firm  texture ;  but  the  modern  silk  rugs  flaunt 
the  aniline  dyes  at  their  brightest,  and  have  fewer 
stitches  to  the  inch  each  season. 

There  is  another  outdoor  clothes-fair  in  the  Chinese 
City,  but  it  is  held  by  torch-light  in  the  earliest  morn- 
ing hours,  closes  at  daylight  before  the  city  gates  open, 
and  is  appropriately  known  as  the  "  thieves'  market." 
As  at  its  Moscow  namesake,  everything  of  luxury, 
value,  and  utility  may  be  bought  in  its  third  estate. 

Beyond  the  beggars'  bridge  there  is  a  half-mile  of 
outdoor  shops  and  booths  extending  down  the  west 
side  of  the  Meridian  Street.  Snuff-bottles  of  every 
kind,  small  objects  in  jade,  crystal,  and  semi-precious 
stones,  entrap  one's  attention,  and  but  for  the  offen- 


194  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

sive,  infragrant,  gapiug,  jeering  crowd  that  presses 
around  one,  he  could  loiter  with  delight  for  hours. 
Great  tea-,  silk-,  fur-,  porcelain-,  hardware-,  harness-, 
furniture-,  and  curio-shops  stretcli  along  this  avenue 
and  fill  the  streets  opening  from  it.  Street  signs  and 
street  calls  are  of  endless  variety  and  puzzling  inter- 
est in  Peking,  and  a  German  anthropologist  has  made 
exhaustive  study  of  them.  The  streets  hang  full  of 
"beckoning  boards,"  gold-lettered  on  black  or  ver- 
milion grounds,  and  the  carved  and  gilded  fronts  of 
medicine-,  tea-,  and  sweetmeat-shops  are  often  so 
elaborate  that  one  wants  to  put  them  under  glass, 
•since  all  around  he  sees  the  wreck  of  them,  loaded  with 
the  grime  of  countless  searing  dust-storms.  The  em- 
blems of  the  trades  and  the  images  of  the  wares 
within  are  decorative  to  a  degree.  The  gigantic 
gilded  coin  of  the  money-changer,  the  wooden  official 
hats  and  strings  of  official  beads,  the  feather-duster 
signs  of  brush-shops,  the  fleur-de-lis  of  tobacconists, 
the  brass  bowls  of  barbers,  and  a  host  of  obscure  em- 
blems continually  occupy  one.  The  fleur-de-lis  brand 
of  snuff,  first  brought  by  French  Jesuits,  has  enjoyed 
exclusive  favor  for  three  centuries,  and  its  use  is  so 
universal  that  one  sees  these  Bourbon  lilies  as  fre- 
quently before  Peking  shops  as  one  sees  tlie  Prince 
of  Wales  feathers  in  London.  The  Mohammedan 
crescent  is  another  Western  emblem  seen  with  sur- 
prise in  Peking  streets,  the  sign  of  bath-houses  and 
butcher-shops,  those  public  purveyors  being  exclusively 
Mohammedans. 

Picture  and  Lantern  and  Jadestone  streets  are  dis- 
appointing, and  one  easily  accepts  the  assurance  that 


CHINESE  PEKING  195 

they  have  fallen  ofif  in  recent  years.  It  is  a  curious 
process,  however,  by  which  they  steam,  scrape,  stretch, 
and  bend  a  common  horn  until  it  is  a  great,  trans- 
parent bubble  like  a  bladder,  a  huge  horn  lantern  a 
foot  in  diameter,  which,  when  decorated  with  vermil- 
ion characters  and  hung  with  tassels  and  glittering 
trinkets,  makes  the  most  admired  decoration  for  a 
house-front  or  garden  court.  There  are  endless  curi- 
ous kinds  of  "candle-cages"  and  "candle-baskets" 
used  in  this  city  of  nightly  blackness,  nothing  prettier 
in  effect,  perhaps,  than  the  huge,  red-lettered,  ribbed, 
and  flattened  spheres  of  official  lanterns,  looking  most 
like  gigantic  tomatoes,  which  are  held  close  to  the 
ground  in  legation  compounds  as  a  light  to  the  feet. 
While  great  sums  are  appropriated  for  lighting  Peking 
streets,  one  sees  only  a  few  faint  lamps  at  long  inter- 
vals, and  any  one  abroad  after  dark  must  light  his 
own  way  through  the  pitfalls,  death-traps,  and  noi- 
some miud-holes.  The  lantern  is  not  a  mere  decorative 
adjunct  of  Chinese  life,  but  a  first  necessity,  as  much 
as  a  fan  or  a  pipe.  Even  the  soldier  has  his  lantern, 
and  that  army  that  attacked  the  English  at  Ningpo  in 
1842  all  stole  upon  the  enemy  lanterns  in  hand.  The 
Chinese  soldier  most  resents  the  foreign  drill-masters 
and  officers  because  they  will  not  let  him  fan  himself 
on  dress-parade  and  deny  the  lone  sentry  his  lantern. 
The  Liu-li-chang,  the  booksellers'  street,  used  to  be 
the  Peking  delight  and  treasure-house.  There  schol- 
ars and  dilettanti  stiU  prowl  to  buy  the  immortal 
classics  in  ten  thousand  volumes,  rubbings  of  old  in- 
scriptions, scroll  pictures,  painted  books,  and  the  con- 
ventional ornaments  and  necessaries  for  the  writing- 


19G  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

table ;  but  the  curio-shops,  where  jade  and  porcelain, 
lacquer  and  bronze,  used  to  embarrass  the  visitor's 
choice,  have  suffered  a  serious  falling  off,  and  thus 
robbed  Peking  of  its  greatest  delights  and  tempta- 
tions. Each  war,  with  its  vicissitudes  among  the  great 
families,  flooded  the  market  with  treasures  galore ;  but 
between  such  crises  one  searches  long,  and  he  needs  to 
be  on  the  alert  for  the  imitations  that  abound.  All  the 
dragons  there  now  have  five  claws,  all  the  hawthorns 
have  the  double  ring  of  Kanghsi  or  the  seal  of  Chenghua. 
There  are  treasures  yet  cherished  in  Peking,  so  great 
was  the  activity  of  artists  and  artisans  in  the  centu- 
ries just  gone,  when  ten  thousands  of  pieces  of  porce- 
lain were  sent  annually  to  the  Peking  palace  for  gifts ; 
but  the  owners  of  such  art  objects  can  afford  to  keep 
them  until  some  great  })olitical  convulsion,  the  fall  of 
the  dynasty,  a  foreign  war  with  another  sack  of  the 
palaces,  brings  them  into  the  market.  Every  amateur 
is  eagerly  waiting  for  some  such  crash,  and  dozens 
avow  themselves  ready  to  take  flight  to  Peking  from 
the  ends  of  the  earth.  One  is  shown  the  boarded-up 
front  of  a  once  famous  curio-shop,  whose  owner  ke])t 
the  fence  for  some  i)alace  servants  Avho  tunneled 
up  under  one  of  the  imperial  storehouses  and  took 
away  cart-loads  of  treasures.  Suspicions  were  at  last 
roused  by  the  number  of  unusually  fine  pieces  of  por- 
celain this  particular  dealer  and  a  confrere  at  Tien- 
tsin had  for  sale.  When  the  half-emptied  storehouse 
with  the  underground  passage  was  opened,  the  of- 
fenders were  soon  found  and  beheaded,  all  the  mem- 
l)ers  of  their  families  put  to  deatli,  and  the  front  of 
the  big  slio})  Imarded  u{)  as  a  warning.     One  looks  at 


CHINESE   PEKING  197 

it  fearfully,  and  sees  why  the  great  treasui'es  are  now 
to  be  seen  and  bought  in  New  York,  London,  and 
Paris  rather  than  along  the  Liu-li-chang.  Yet  col- 
lecting has  its  fascination  in  face  of  the  law  and  the 
lictors,  and  such  curio-stealing  for  the  market  will  go 
on  as  long  as  there  are  servants  in  Chinese  yamuns 
and  storehouses  worth  looting.  The  recent  coups 
d'etat  did  send  some  famous  Chinese  connoisseurs  to 
the  block  and  to  exile,  but  their  treasures  vanished  be- 
fore the  families  could  turn  a  key. 

One  never  gets  to  the  end  of  the  strange  and  as- 
tonishing histories  of  ancient  works  of  Chinese  art, 
and  I  was  shown  the  famous  album  of  water-color 
sketches  of  eighty  pieces  of  Ming  porcelains  once 
owned  by  the  wicked  Prince  of  I.  It  was  this 
prince  who  violated  the  flag  of  truce  in  1860  and  im- 
prisoned the  peace  commissioners,  which  act  bi'ought 
about  the  attack  on  Peking  and  the  destruction  of 
the  Summer  Palace.  He  was  graciously  permitted  to 
strangle  himself  in  prison  when  the  coup  d'etat  of 
1861  had  seated  the  empresses  in  the  regents'  chairs, 
and  all  of  I's  great  collections  of  treasures  were  scat- 
tered. This  exquisitely  colored  album  was  offered  to 
one  foreign  euvoy,  who  retained  it  for  consideration, 
had  an  artist  secretly  copy  the  paintings,  and  then 
returned  the  album  to  the  dealer  with  word  that  he 
did  not  care  to  buy.  Another  thrifty  plenipotentiary 
did  the  same  thing  when  it  was  offered  to  him.  The 
third  customer  to  whom  it  went  a-begging,  being 
more  British  than  diplomatic,  honestly  bought  the 
original  album,  which  he  supposed  was  unique,  al- 
lowed a  friend  to  have  a  copy  made,  and  then  took  it 


198  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

to  London,  where  the  original  book  was  burned.  Then 
the  envoys  produced  their  surreptitious  copies  and 
boasted  of  their  smartness.  It  is  a  standing  Pekingese 
parable,  too,  how  the  slender  little  dappled  peach- 
blow  vase,  for  which  American  collectors  contended 
so  extravagantly  at  the  Morgan  sale,  was  hawked 
about  every  legation  and  finally  sold  for  a  virtual 
trifle  to  a  visiting  professional  buyer.  Not  all  of 
these  whom  fortune  tempted  that  once  are  agreed  to 
berate  themselves  for  short-sightedness,  nor  yet  do  all 
deny  the  superior  charms  of  the  peach-cheeked  trea- 
sure which  became  the  sensation  and  then  the  mys- 
tery of  its  ceramic  season. 

Out  of  Peking  came,  a  few  years  ago,  a  most  won- 
derful collection  of  jade,  acquired  at  a  stroke  by  an 
American  collector  and  connoisseur  who  enjoys  the 
possession  of  the  greatest  and  rarest  collection  of 
jade  in  the  Western  world.  He  spent  but  a  compara- 
tively short  time  in  Peking,  and  when  one  finds  that 
there  is  less  good  jade  to  be  seen  for  sale  in  Peking 
than  in  New  York,  and  that  none  is  now  carved  there, 
that  feat  of  collecting  piques  curiosity.  He  learns, 
though,  that  the  season  of  the  American  collector's 
great  find  was  a  few  months  before  the  Empress 
Dowager's  birthday,  and  the  eunuchs,  in  search  of 
worthy  offerings,  had  commanded  the  great  dealer 
or  father  of  all  jade  in  the  Liu-li-chang,  and  his 
Tatar  City  rival  by  the  Dung-tang,  to  assemble  some 
''  ten-times-number-one  "  ol)jects  for  their  inspection. 
The  American  collector  had  ''such  a  good  heart" 
that  one  dealer  let  him  just  look  in  upon  the  splendors 
laid  out  for  eunuch  inspection.     Tlie  American,  after 


CHINESE  PEKING  199 

brief  survey,  made  an  offer  for  the  whole  lot,  with 
instant  delivery.  And  it  was  paid  for,  cotton- wooled, 
and  boxed  out  of  the  premises  so  speedily  that  the 
dazed  dealer  was  literally  so  "heavily  sick"  with 
prosperity  that  he  was  indifferent  to  the  scorn  of  the 
eunuchs  when  they  looked  upon  the  few  trumpery 
pieces  hastily  shuffled  into  the  place  of  the  heavenly 
green  joys  the  American  had  borne  off.  Eunuchs  are 
keen  bargainers  and  poor  pay,  anyhow.  The  other 
dealer,  who  had  assembled  a  roomful  of  jade  rarities 
for  eunuch  inspection,  was  also  taken  by  storm, 
bought  out  at  sight,  and  paid  within  the  hour  in  good 
dollars  instead  of  in  long-running  palace  promises. 
Two  such  transactions  could  not  go  on  in  the  same 
market  without  some  one  telling  or  turning  traitor, 
and  a  chain  of  suspicion  was  fastening  upon  the 
boxes  that  heaped  up  so  rapidly  in  the  tourists'  quar- 
ters. Only  the  fact  that  his  boy  sat  on  those  boxes 
night  and  day,  and  that  the  collector  had  diplomatic 
company  on  his  speedy  trip  down  to  Tientsin,  averted 
some  kind  of  an  unpleasantness.  Sight  might  have 
been  proof  of  stolen  property,  but  as  anything  worth 
having  has  usually  been  stolen  for  the  curio-market, 
a  buyer's  sensibilities  lose  their  finer  edge  when  he  has 
honestly  paid  for  his  purchases  to  some  one  in  the 
long  chain  of  rascals. 

In  the  long-ago  there  was  a  porcelain-factory  in 
the  Liu-li-chang,  whei-e  Chihli's  clays  were  shaped 
to  things  of  beauty  and  decorated  after  the  designs 
of  the  best  court  painters,  but  it  has  long  been  closed. 
There  is  still  a  crowded  fair  in  the  Liu-li-chang  at 
New  Year's  time,  when  the  long  street  is  beset  by 


200  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

scholars  and  collectors  who  are  there  by  day  and  by 
night  to  buy  the  treasures  that  the  season  of  debt- 
paying  brings  to  light,  and  to  watch  their  own  trea- 
sure-seeking purchasers  in  the  liands  of  middlemen. 

A  famous  sweetmeat-shop  iu  the  Liu-li-chang  main- 
tains its  standard  and  prestige  undiminished,  and  the 
honeyed  things  in  glazed  pottery  jars  are  each  more 
tempting  than  another.  Wliile  one  sips  jasmine  tea  in 
some  inner  cui-io  sanctum,  one  can  send  for  and  make 
trial  of  these  Mongol  sweets,  taking  them  in  Russian 
fashion  between  sips,  or  dropped  into  the  tea.  There 
is  a  factory  of  cloisonne  enamels  near  the  Liu-li- 
chang,  which  produces  large  pieces  after  the  best  old 
designs;  and  as  Chinese  taste  and  artistic  invention 
seem  alike  dead  in  this  decade,  it  is  best  that  they 
tread  the  conv^entional  way.  They  cannot  repeat  the 
softest  colors  of  the  old  Ming  enamels,  but  the 
Japanese  deceive  Peking  connoisseurs  as  easily  with 
their  artistic  forgeries  of  old  enamels  as  with  their 
counterfeits  of  old  porcelains,  and  of  both  such  im- 
portations the  Liu-li-chang  holds  full  supply.  "  Be- 
ware of  the  Japanese,"  say  Chinese  connoisseurs,  who 
seem  easily  victimized.  If  one  would  study  and  enjoy 
Chinese  art,  one  should  go  where  the  great  collections 
and  the  great  dealers  in  "Oriental"  are— to  Paris,  to 
London,  to  New  York  or  Baltimore,  to  Dresden,  Berlin, 
Weimar,  or  St.  Petersburg,  but  not  to  Peking. 


XV 

WITHOUT  THE  WALLS 

the  Chinese  City  there  is  little  of  in- 
terest beyond  the  shops  and  streets, 
as  the  great  inclosures  of  the  Temple 
of  Heaven  and  the  Temple  of  Agri- 
culture are  fast  shut,  and  one  sees 
what  he  may  through  an  opera-glass  as  he  walks  the 
city  wall.  No  foreigner  has  ever  assisted  at  the  ser- 
vices at  the  Temple  of  Heaven,  and  few  have  entered 
its  inclosures.  For  some  years  after  1860,  entry  to  the 
lovely  park  by  the  south  wall  was  easily  gained,  but 
after  certain  vandal  acts  the  entry  of  visitors  was  pro- 
hibited. Every  foreigner  became  possessed  then  to 
gain  entry,  and  bribery ,trickery,  and  every  other  device 
were  resorted  to  to  penetrate  the  forbidden  realm. 
Full  illustrations  and  full  explanations  of  all  the  tem- 
ple precincts  and  ceremonies  are  given  in  the  standard 
works  on  China,  which  sufficiently  gratify  a  normal 
curiosity  or  any  legitimate  interest,  and  the  majority 
of  these  zealous  investigators  schemed  to  enter  the 
park  of  the  Temple  of  Heaven  to  gratify  a  love  of 
adventure  and  that  last  ambition  of  small  minds,  *'  to 

201 


202  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

say  they  have  been  there."  Persistent  visitors  were 
assisted  up  the  walls  and  dropped  down  on  the  inner 
side.  When  discovered  and  chased  by  the  guards, 
they  ran  for  the  wall,  where  their  servants  stood 
with  ropes  to  haul  them  up,  and  mounting,  rode 
away  before  the  guards  could  reach  the  outer  gates 
to  stop  or  identify  them. 

From  the  wall  one  can  see  the  circular  white  altar 
rising  in  terraces,  and,  with  the  full  descriptions 
given,  can  picture  the  scene  of  the  midnight  sacri- 
fices and  the  worship  of  the  Supreme  Deity  by  the 
Emperor  and  his  great  retinue  at  the  time  of  the  win- 
ter and  the  spring  solstice.  This  religion,  this  wor- 
ship of  the  Supreme  Ruler  with  burnt-offerings  and 
on  an  open  altar,  is  the  most  ancient  cult  now  ob- 
served anywhere  in  the  world,  far  antedating  Confu- 
cian and  Taoist  and  Buddhist  doctrines,  and  is  the 
survival  of  those  primitive  beliefs  that  had  force  in 
Asia  before  the  gods  were  personified,  their  images 
enshrined  in  temples,  and  creeds  and  ceremonies 
elaborated.  The  temples  and  buildings  in  the  great 
park  were  rebuilt  in  splendor  by  Yunglo,  the  mag- 
nificent builder,  the  Grand  Monarque  of  the  Mings ; 
and  the  new  Temple  of  Heaven  of  tliis  decade,  roofed 
with  shimmering  azure  tiles  and  with  window-screens 
of  fine  blue  glass  rods,  repeats  the  temple  of  his  day, 
which  was  destroyed  by  heavenly  fire  soon  after  the 
war  of  the  allies. 

The  Temple  of  Agriculture  occupies  another  great 
park  adjacent  to  the  sontli  wall  of  the  Cliinese  City, 
whicli  the  Emperor  and  his  officers  visit  in  state  an- 
nually, the  Emperor  plowing  a  piece  of  ground  each 


WITHOUT   THE  WALLS  203 

spring  in  reverence  for  the  spirits  of  earth  and  his 
great  ancestors,  who  first  made  the  earth  bring  forth 
its  fruits.  The  altar  or  Temple  of  the  Eai-th  outside 
the  north  wall  of  the  Tatar  Cit}^,  the  altar  of  the  Sun 
in  the  east  suburb,  and  the  altar  of  the  Moon  beyond 
the  west  wall,  where  the  tablets  of  the  stars  are 
placed,  are  other  sanctuaries  of  annual  imperial  wor- 
ship, as  jealously  guarded  as  those  within  the  city 
wall,  although  the  allied  troops  camped  in  the  park 
of  the  altar  of  the  Earth  in  1860.) 
VThe  Po-yun-Kwan,  the  mother  temple  and  head-  iX 
quarters  of  the  Taoist  sect  in  North  China,  which 
was  a  venerated  place  when  Kublai  Khan  came,  lies 
just  outside  the  northwest  gate  of  the  Chinese  City—  '  - 
the  Hsi-pien-men,  or  Western  Wicket  of  Expediency. 
This  religion  of  the  indefinite  and  the  impalpable, 
this  bafling  cult  of  the  vague  and  the  opaque,  which 
has  now  gone  off  into  mere  magic,  hocus-pocus, 
charms,  exorcisms,  and  wizardry  of  the  cheapest 
kind,  seems  there  to  have  some  reality,  some  dignity, 
some  form.  The  great  ceremony  of  the  fire  test  is 
performed  at  Po-yun-Kwan  on  the  third  day  of  the 
third  moon  each  year,  but  quite  by  chance  we  hap- 
pened upon  a  great  conference  and  convocation  of 
Taoist  priests  on  the  last  day  of  our  Christian  Oc- 
tober. More  than  two  hundred  priests  were  gathered 
at  the  temple,  and  a  great  service  or  mass  had  just 
begun  as  we  arrived.  The  priests  had  taken  their 
places  inside  the  temple  and  in  the  great  stone-flagged 
court,  all  attired  in  loose,  dark-blue  robes,  wearing 
Taoist  caps  with  open  crowns  showing  a  topknot  of 
hair  held  by  a  single  pin,  like  the  Korean  and  Loo- 


204  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

chooan  coiffure  of  to-day  and  the  universal  Chinese 
fashion  in  the  Ming  times.  It  was  solemn  and  im- 
pressive as  those  blue-robed  priests  stood  in  twelve 
lines  of  twelve  men  each,  facing  the  altar  of  the 
inner  temple,  each  priest  grasping  a  jui,  or  Taoist 
scepter,  the  symbol  of  good  luck  and  long  life  in 
common  usage.  Seven  higher  priests  in  brilliant  red 
stoles  stood  at  intervals  down  the  central  path  or 
aisle  of  the  court,  where  the  great  bronze  incense- 
burner  gave  out  curls  of  fragrant  smoke.  The  voice 
of  the  high  priest  far  within  the  temple  was  lifted  in 
a  chant,  the  priests  on  the  steps  responded,  a  bell 
vibrated  in  the  sanctuary,  and  all  the  priests  knelt  in 
unison  and  struck  their  foreheads  upon  the  stones. 
Three  times  they  made  this  obeisance  and  this  pros- 
tration in  concert ;  the  great  sweep  forward  of  all 
those  robed  figures  at  once  was  like  the  bending  and 
bowing  to  Mecca  in  a  crowded  mosque.  At  times 
they  knelt  upon  one  knee,  then  rose  in  unison,  and 
the  deep  Gregorian  chant  went  on.  There  were 
inner  and  further  altars  of  the  indefinite,  impalpable 
religion  of  nothingness  in  courts  beyond,  wliere  the 
gilded  images  of  the  Guardians  of  the  Four  Quar- 
ters smiled,  im})erial  tablets  stood,  and  rolls  of  silk 
were  laid  as  offerings,  and  more  splendid  incense- 
burners  sent  up  fine  blue  clouds  of  worshipful  fra- 
grance. Every  part  of  the  temple  in  closure,  all  its 
labyrinth  of  courts  and  fantastic  gardens  of  artificial 
rock  work,  was  exquisitely  clean,  and  a  great  glass 
pavilion  was  being  made  ready  for  the  feast  which 
was  to  close  the  annual  convocation  of  priests.  ,/ 
But  foreign  Peking  takes  little  interest  in  Taoism, 


WITHOUT   THE  WALLS  205 

its  masses  and  ceremonies,  its  fire-walking  or  its  fire- 
eating,'  and  we  were  carried  on  to  an  elaborate  tea  in 
the  high-terraced  guest-room  of  the  Tien-ling-ssu, 
whose  noble  old  thirteen-story  pagoda  of  the  sixth 
century  holds  a  colossal  Buddha  of  a  commonplace, 
gilded  plaster  countenance.  The  priests  bid  one  throw 
a  cash  at  a  metal  plate  hanging  directly  over  the  All- 
Knowing  one's  gilded  hand,  for  good  luck  and  the 
good  of  the  temple  exchequer. 

The  Peking  race-course  is  just  beyond  these  two 
temples,  and  the  meets  give  all  the  Cambaluc  world 
of  Western  fashion  days  of  enjoyment  out  in  the 
fresh,  clear,  sparkling  air  of  the  open  plain,  fresh  air 
blown  straight  from  the  hills  and  boundless  Mongo- 
lia beyond.  On  midwinter  days,  when  the  sun  shines 
with  desert  fierceness  from  a  dry,  blue,  cloudless  sky, 
the  electric,  exhilarating  air  makes  human  and  equine 
blood  and  muscles  tingle,  and  there  are  many  scratch 
races  called  on  the  spur  of  the  moment  to  give  spirits 
vent  and  relief  from  the  rush  of  routine,  intramural 
and  indoor  social  amusements. 

The  Mongol  horse-traders  bring  droves  of  ponies 
down  from  their  grassy  plains  from  beyond  the  Great 
Wall  each  season  *^  when  the  river  has  frozen  and  the 
tourists  are  gone,"  and  the  racing  man  has  the  plea- 
sure of  choosing  the  most  promising  of  these  prairie- 
bred  ones,  and  training  the  Asiatic  bronco  for  a 
cup-winner.  These  tough,  strong-jawed,  and  shock- 
headed  little  horses  of  the  plains  often  develop  aston- 
ishingly, and  surprises  are  the  regular  order  of  the 
meets.  Gentlemen  jockeys  ride  their  own  ponies, 
which  they  themselves  have  trained  morning  after 


206  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPHIE 

morning  at  sunrise  outside  the  walls,  or  light-weight 
friends  ride  for  them.  Irreverent  strangers  who  see 
the  lean  yellow  Chinese  jockey  in  conventional  cap  and 
boots  and  gaudy  satin  jacket  for  the  first  time  are 
sure  there  was  never  funnier  sight  before,  and  the 
crowded  race-course  is  a  most  diverting  spectacle.  A 
few  Chinese  officials,  who  have  learned  the  delightful 
excitements  of  racing  in  European  capitals,  enliven 
the  grand  stand  with  their  brilliant  satins  and  sables, 
and  on  an  autumn  day  that  I  best  remember,  Chang 
Yen  Hoon,  his  faithful  Liang,  and  some  confreres 
gave  the  brilliant  touch  of  local  color  and  splendor 
to  the  gathering.  It  was  cup-day,  and  all  Peking 
was  there,  arriving  by  horse  and  chair,  mule-cart  or 
mule-litter,  and  making  strangest  pictures  ever  a 
grand  stand  saw  as  they  descended  or  extricated 
themselves  from  such  medieval  conveyances.  A  year 
later  the  coup  d'etat  had  fallen,  and  Sir  Chang,  barely 
saved  from  the  block,  was  on  his  way  to  life-exile  in 
Kashgaria. 

A  great  concourse  of  the  people,  thousands  of  Chi- 
nese, had  flocked  to  the  race-course,  and  stretches  be- 
side the  grand  stand  and  stables  and  in  the  field  were 
solidly  blue  with  their  monotonous  garments.  They 
were  kept  back  and  in  bounds  by  Chinese  grooms 
and  jockeys  who  spared  not  the  lash  on  man  or  beast, 
and  all  the  legation  servants  and  outriders  assisted  to 
preserve  the  inviolability  of  the  lawn  and  yard.  A 
Russian  secretary  ordered  his  booted  and  belted 
Cossack  orderly  to  bring  something  from  the  stables 
at  once,  and  as  the  clumsy  creature  touched  his  cap, 
wound  his  rawhide  whip  around  his  hand,  and  started 


WITHOUT   THE  WALLS  207 

down  the  steps  and  across  the  lawn  on  a  run,  the 
whole  mass  of  Chinese  took  to  their  heels  before 
him,  precipitating  themselves  headlong  into  ditches, 
tumbling  over  one  another,  picking  themselves  up 
without  looking  back,  and  running  entirely  across  the 
field  before  they  brought  up  exhausted.  Even  the 
Cossack  stopped  for  a  second  and  looked  bewildered 
around  him  to  see  what  had  started  this  silent,  frantic 
flight  of  this  Tatar  tribe— scene  typical  of  the  rela- 
tions and  attitudes  of  those  two  races,  a  picture  in 
miniature  of  so-called  railroad  extension  in  Man- 
churia. The  Chinese  know  the  Russian.  They  have 
found  their  master  and  have  felt  the  whip,  and  they 
stand  not  upon  the  order  of  their  going. 

After  the  great  race  tiffin,  with  speeches  and  toasts 
and  cheers,  when  the  winners  in  their  gay  satin  jackets 
had  come  up  to  receive  the  prizes  presented  in  graceful 
little  speeches  by  different  ladies,  there  came  the  mad 
breakneck,  steeplechase,  free-to-all,  great  race  of  the 
day,  through  fields,  over  ruts  and  ditches,  across  lots, 
anyhow — the  foreigners'  race  home  from  the  races 
before  the  city  gates  should  close.  Those  who  were  in 
the  saddle  could  of  course  wait  for  the  last  race  of  the 
program,  long  before  which  the  grand  stand  was 
emptied.  Chair-bearers  could  rely  upon  making  great 
spurts  across  lots,  but  carts  had  to  follow  the  fixed 
Unes  of  ruts  into  the  Chinese  City,  and  then  plod 
through  the  waste  of  sand  along  the  walls  of  the 
Tatar  City  to  its  gates  before  the  fatal  stroke.  There 
mules  were  beaten,  carts  bumped,  and  carters  chir- 
ruped and  repeated  their  tvu-ivu-wu  uni-u-u  and  the 
pr-pr-pr-rup   like    Norwegian    skydguts,    while    one 


208  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

bounded  about  in  the  upholstered  chair  and  wedged 
more  pillows  beside  one.  Clouds  of  dust  surrounded 
each  cart,  through  which  one  saw  dimly  only  the  barrel 
glimpse  ahead,  nothing  but  the  darkening  waste  and 
the  endless,  endless  walls.  With  some  energetic 
whackings,  mules  were  made  to  go  faster,  and  just 
when  every  joint  seemed  racked  loose,  mules  turned 
in  the  great  arch,  with  other  carts,  carters,  donkeys, 
and  camels  streaming  through  the  tunnel  as  the  bells' 
slower  clang  and  the  pipes'  shrill  whistle  proclaimed 
the  last  moments  of  grace.  Then  mules  and  muleteers 
and  dust-laden  passengers  stopped  to  breathe,  and  car- 
acoling knights  called  into  cart  interiors  their  thanks- 
givings at  such  a  fortunate  escape,  for  a  survey  assured 
us  that  all  were  safely  within  the  walls  before  the 
gates  went  to  with  a  sound  not  to  be  forgotten. 
Picturesque  medieval  customs  are  better  read  about 
than  encountered. 

Chi,  the  anger  principle,  naturally  possesses  an  out- 
sider at  that  most  amazing  and  humiliating  spectacle 
of  the  Peking  year.  It  is  the  regular  spectacle,  how- 
ever, on  all  autumn  and  winter  race-days,  and  the 
Chinese  must  have  a  secret  delight  in  seeing  all  the 
hated  barbarians,  titled  representatives  and  honored 
officials,  the  great  diplomats  of  the  greatest  powers, 
running  home  like  school-boys  when  the  curfew  tolls, 
dignity,  self-respect,  and  that  domineering  spirit  of 
treaty-making  times  all  gone.  Not  a  protest,  not  an 
appeal,  not  a  request  is  made  that  even  one  gate 
should  be  left  open  for  the  diplomats'  use  that  night ; 
and  still  less  does  the  Ti-tu,  or  city  governor,  ever 
dream  of  offering   such  a  courtesy.     Yet  these  abject 


WITHOUT   THE  WALLS  209 

ones  are  the  very  same  envoys  of  the  same  great 
powers  who  snatch  provinces  and  ports  and  islands 
at  will,  and  who  -wrest  the  spoils  of  war  from  a  con- 
quering nation,  slip  whole  clauses  into  their  own 
transcript  of  a  treaty,  and  hold  the  Chinese  by  threat 
of  war  to  its  literal  fulfilment ;  who  push  the  privilege 
of  their  coupe-ligm  cards  everywhere  in  European 
capitals,  who  insist  that  their  dogs  shall  go  without 
muzzles  as  a  diplomatic  privilege,  in  the  face  of  laws 
crowned  heads  must  obey  in  their  own  empires ;  yet 
they  do  not,  dare  not,  ask  to  have  one  gate  left  open 
for  them  on  one  night  of  the  year !  Truly  the  ways 
of  diplomacy  are  tortuous  and  past  finding  out.  La 
earriere  is  a  path  in  the  dark,  and  the  Chinese  are  not 
the  only  ones  who  think  backward  and  upside  down. 
With  all  this  there  has  never  been  a  Jameson  raid  in 
China !  With  their  genius  for  taming  and  hypnotizing 
the  diplomat,  the  Chinese  ought  logically  to  rule  the 
world. 

For  a  flowery  kingdom,  one  sees  the  fewest  flowers 
in  its  capital  city.  No  sight  nor  hint  of  flower-gar- 
dens, nor  any  purposely  blooming  and  beautifying 
thing,  may  be  seen  in  the  streets,  and  the  rich  tangle 
of  wild  roses  and  tough  morning-glory  vines  all  over 
the  terre-plein  of  the  city  walls  is  not  growing  there 
by  any  intention  of  enjoyment  on  the  part  of  the  neg- 
lectful guardians.  At  Lung-fu-ssu  fair  and  at  the 
morning  market  by  the  west  gate,  a  few  plants  and 
common  flowers  are  offered  for  sale,  but  there  are  too 
few  to  prove  that  any  love  of  flowers  exists  with  the 
masses,  and  their  price  is  prohibitive  to  the  common 
people.     In  each  legation  compound  one  sees  hun- 


210  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

dreds  of  flower-pots  ranged  along  the  paths,  but  the 
baked-clay  soil  of  the  Peking  plain  does  not  admit  of 
luxuriant  flower-gardens,  although  that  plain  is  cov- 
ered with  wild  flowers  in  spring,  and  fragrant,  long- 
stemmed  violets  bloom  there  until  late  autumn.  As 
the  chrysanthemum  came  from  China  originally,  one 
would  naturally  look  for  its  richest  development  at  the 
capital  where  wealth  and  luxury  center ;  but  Peking 
makes  poor  show  in  any  floral  line,  and  the  chrysanthe- 
mum is  seen  at  its  best  in  the  foreign  flower-shows  at 
the  Shanghai  race-course,  and  at  a  garden  in  the  native 
city  of  Shanghai.  Ningpo  claims  to  have  gardeners 
who  can  produce  more  astonishing  pompons  and  great 
incurved  and  recurved  descendants  of  the  "  Chusan 
daisy"  than  those  of  their  gild  elsewhere,  but  few 
foreigners  have  chance  to  judge  of  this. 

All  the  chrysanthemums  in  legation  courts,  even 
those  at  the  old  fu,  were  of  the  commonest  varieties, 
and  nearly  all  grafted  on  the  shaggy,  woody  stem  of 
artemisia,  the  neglected,  untidy,  untrained  foliage 
detracting  greatly  from  the  beauty  of  the  flowers. 
After  persistent  questioning  on  all  sides,  a  literatus 
told  of  a  certain  chrysanthemum  and  |)lum-tree  gar- 
den where  flowers  were  grown  for  the  eunuchs  who 
decorate  the  palace  living-rooms.  It  was  a  long 
drive  to  the  garden,  first  through  the  endless  Chinese 
City,  past  the  public  execution-ground— a  piece  of  the 
public  highway  which  is  blocked  while  the  decapita- 
tion or  brutal  strangling  by  hand  goes  on,  and  where 
curious  children  were  then  gazing  at  a  robber's  head 
that  had  lain  for  a  week  in  the  lattice-box  or  cage.  Then 
we  went  on  past  slums  and  suburban  tracts,  the  lit- 


WITHOUT   THE  WALLS  213 

eral  rus  in  urhe,  past  desolate  graveyards  whose  broken 
walls  showed  reeling  and  fallen  Buddhist  monu- 
ments ;  and  at  last,  through  the  deep-vaulted  tunnel  of 
the  outer  southwest  gate,  the  cart  reached  dusty 
wastes  and  the  group  of  gardeners'  huts  and  plant- 
houses  where  the  palace  flowers  bloom.  The  disillu- 
sionment was  complete  when,  in  that  baked-clay 
garden,  the  tattered  and  greasy-coated  gardener  or 
imperial  purveyor  and  florist  pointed  to  some  shaggy 
artemisia  stems  abloom  with  white  and  yellow  chry- 
santhemums that  were  to  go  to  the  palace  the  next 
morning.  The  imperial  eyes  had  to  be  delighted  with 
the  commonest  flowers  or  with  none  at  all,  since  this 
favorite  of  the  eunuchs  declared  them  his  choicest 
blossoms.  His  winter  plant-houses  were  being  made 
ready  to  store  and  force  the  palace  palms,  oleanders, 
dwarf  plums,  almonds,  Jcwei-hwa,  or  fragrant  olive- 
trees,  and  the  moutans,  or  tree-peonies.  These  houses 
of  wattle  and  dab,  with  mud  walls  on  three  sides  and 
mud  roofs  laid  on  a  frame  of  poles  and  matting,  were 
being  chinked  up  and  mended.  Thick  white  paper 
was  already  pasted  over  some  of  the  skeleton  poles 
of  the  south  walls.  These  thick,  dry,  warm  shelters, 
with  sunlight  glowing  hot  on  the  paper  fronts,  keep 
the  plants  at  a  safe  and  even  temperature  through 
the  bright  but  bitter  winters  of  that  northern  plain. 
Other  mud  storehouses  with  glass  south  walls  have 
underground  kangs  and  flues  that  force  the  plants 
appropriate  to  the  New  Year  to  bloom  on  time.  If  the 
symbolic  festal  flowers  lag  in  the  last  week  of  grace, 
caldrons  of  boiling  water  furnish  clouds  of  gentle 
steam-heat  that  open  the  most  obstinate  peonies,  and 


214  CHINA:  THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

then,  swathed  in  paper  mantles,  they  are  transported 
in  closed  carts  warmed  with  hand-furnaces  or  Mongol 
braziers.  The  rarest  vases  are  put  to  use  at  the  New 
Year  season,  and,  with  true  Chinese  shiftlessness, 
withered  flowers  are  left  in  vases  for  weeks  until 
the  water  freezes  and  cracks  the  precious  porcelain. 
In  this  way  have  resulted  great  cracks  entirely  around 
the  rarest  palace  pieces,  vases  which  when  broken  are 
reported  as  such  and  ruthlessly  thrown  away— and 
very  carefully  gathered  up  and  mended,  and  sent 
to  the  curio-dealer,  who  may  have  indicated  to  some 
needy  eunuch  or  eunuch's  servant  what  kind  of  a  vase 
it  would  be  most  profitable  to  have  suffer  a  frost- 
crack.  Such  was  the  fate  of  one  splendid  sang-de- 
bceuf  vase  in  the  palace  some  years  ago,  which  Avas 
sold  to  an  American,  whose  collection  was  soon  after 
dispersed  in  a  New  York  auction-room,  the  glorious 
red  beaker  reserved  for  sale,  however,  with  the  trea- 
sures of  quite  another  collector,  in  order  to  maintain 
the  mystery  and  fraud,  and  save  a  suspected  Pekingese 
head. 


XVI 


THE  ENVIRONS  OF  PEKING 


^ERE  there  good  roads  aud  more  tol-  '^ 
erable  iuns,  were  traveling  by  land  in 
China  anything  but  the  reverse  of 
comfortable,  safe,  or  pleasant,  one 
could  spend  weeks  of  the  matchless 
spring  aud  autumn  weather  in  trips  to  the  interesting 
places  in  the  Peking  neighborhood.  When  it  is  neces- 
sary to  go  by  cart  or  litter,  or  at  least  to  carry  one's 
bedding  and  full  camp  equipment  in  such  slow,  archaic 
conveyances,  one  loses  interest  in  places  that  are  one 
or  many  nights  away  from  Peking.  All-day  excur- 
sions usually  suffice  one. 

The  railway,  as  it  approaches  Peking,  skirts  the 
wall  of  the  Nan-hai-tzu,  or  "  Southern  Hunting  Park," 
an  abandoned  and  unused  demesne,  where  for  years 
the  unique  "  David  or  tail  deer,"  with  its  huge  antlers, 
roamed  in  herds,  and  other  game  increased  in  peace. 
The  extension  of  the  line  beyond  Peking  brings  to 
modern  light  and  makes  accessible  that  wonderful 
old  Liu-ko-chiao  bridge,  which  spans  the  Hun-ho  River 
by  great  stone  arches,  its  carved  parapet  guarded  by 

215 


216  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

stone  lions,  so  bewildering  in  number  in  other  cen- 
turies that  none  could  keep  count  of  them.  Marco 
Polo  crossed  and  praised  it  in  the  thirteenth  century, 
and  it  remains  an  enduring  monument  of  greater 
days,  one  of  the  famous  bridges  in  this  empire  of 
wonderful  bridges. 

The  legations  and  nearly  all  the  customs  families 
remove  in  summer  to  the  temples  in  the  western  hills, 
which  rise  from  the  level  Peking  j)lain  ten  miles  from 
the  city,  as  suddenly  as  the  Alban  Hills  beyond  Rome. 
Eight  temples  are  nielied  in  ravines  and  built  on 
spui'S  of  the  steep  hills,  the  ascending  chain  of  tem- 
ples connected  by  an  ancient  flagged  roadway.  These 
beautiful,  clean  temple  compounds  comfortably  ac- 
commodate the  diplomatic  colony  each  summer,  when 
the  desert  sun  scorches  Peking  for  so  many  hours  of 
the  long  northern  day,  and  the  city  is  enveloped  in 
dense  clouds  of  the  finely  pulverized,  poisonous  dust, 
or  else,  with  the  deluging  rains,  the  streets  become  so 
many  rivers  in  flood,  and  mules  in  cart-harness  are 
drowned  at  legation  gates.  The  British  government 
has  bought  land  and  built  summer  quarters  for  that 
legation  at  the  hills,  but  the  other  envoys  continue 
to  rent  their  favorite  temples,  and  enjoy  a  picturesque 
sort  of  intimate  country  and  camp  life  in  these  quaint 
old  Buddhist  precincts. 

These  western  hills  and  fai'ther  hills  to  the  south- 
west hold  valuable  coal-deposits.  Although  the  great 
geologists  Punipelly  and  Richtofen  examined  and 
reported  upon  their  richness  thirty  years  ago,  conces- 
sions for  foreign  engineers  to  work  the  mines  with 
machinery  and  Western  appliances  have  but  lately 


COAL   MIXINU   AND   TKAXSl'OKTATIOX. 

MADKIl    CAMEL.;  ^Sl.AVK    UKAWIMi    KABKKT    l)K    COAL.) 


THE   ENVIRONS  OF   PEKING  219 

been  wrested  from  the  government,  Chinese  jealousy, 
suspicion,  and  conservatism  being  exerted  to  the  ut- 
most still  to  prevent  the  course  of  progress  and  the 
working  of  these  concessions.  The  coal,  both  bitu- 
minous and  anthracite,  is  still  picked  out  with  primi- 
tive tools,  and  is  dragged  to  the  surface  in  basket 
sleds  fastened  to  the  necks  of  wretched  workmen, 
who  creep  on  all  fours  along  the  narrow  little  run- 
ways picked  along  the  lines  of  the  veins.  It  is  trans- 
ported to  Peking  in  baskets  by  camel-train,  and 
delivered  at  the  consumer's  door  for  less  than  three 
gold  dollars  a  ton. 

The  road  out  from  the  west  gate  to  the  hills 
passes  through  the  walled  town  of  Pa-li-chuan,  which 
has  as  its  landmark  a  splendid  old  thirteen-story 
pagoda,  the  largest  in  the  Peking  neighborhood. 
Within  twenty  years  the  pagoda  has  gone  to  ruin, 
and  the  gold  image  of  Kwanyin,  the  Goddess  of  Mercy, 
piously  enshrined  there  by  one  of  the  Ming  empresses, 
is  no  longer  on  the  altar.  As  worshipers  decreased, 
and  with  them  the  income,  the  priests  grew  angry, 
sold  all  the  attainable  timbers  and  carved  woodwork 
for  fuel,  and  all  the  altar  ornaments,  and  decamped, 
leaving  the  pagoda  to  the  elements  and  passers-by  to 
wreck  at  will. 

North  of  it,  on  the  palace  road,  stand  the  ruins 
of  the  outer  temples  of  Wu-ta-ssu,  built  by  Yunglo 
to  shelter  five  golden  images  and  a  model  of  the 
immortal  diamond  throne  under  the  sacred  bo-tree 
of  Buddh  Gaya,  whi(ih  a  priest  had  brought  from 
Lulia  to  tlie  devout  Emperor  Chenghua.  In  one 
great  hall  the  roof  was  allowed  to  fall  in  and  crusli 


220  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

the  altar  images  and  the  company  of  lohans,  frag- 
ments and  lumps  of  which  only  now  remain.  The 
square  marble  building  of  the  inner  sanctuary  re- 
mains, its  outer  wall  covered  with  row  above  row  of 
recessed  images  of  Buddha,  and  the  five  pagodas  on 
its  flat  terrace  top  are  covered  with  more  and  more 
images  of  Fo.  There  are  no  priests,  no  keepers  to 
be  seen,  but  a  legion  of  country  folk  approach  and  beg 
at  sight  of  a  stranger. 

This  road  from  the  northwest  city  gate  continues 
on  past  Wu-ta-ssu  to  the  bannermen's  village  of  Hai- 
tien,  at  the  gates  of  the  Summer  Palace  and  of  the 
E-ho  Park,  the  residence  of  the  Empress  Dowager  and 
the  prison  palace  of  the  Emperor  Kwangsu.  The  road 
is  paved  witli  large,  flat  slabs  of  stone,  and  was  built 
in  1894  as  part  of  the  preparation  for  celebrating  the 
Empress  Dowager's  sixtieth  birthday,  which  the  Japa- 
nese war  so  rudely  interrupted.  There  were  grum- 
blings and  loud-mouthed  criticisms  in  Peking  that 
the  palace  folk  should  build  such  a  model  road  for 
their  pleasurings,  while  all  Peking's  communication 
with  its  markets  and  the  outer  world  was  crippled  by 
the  wrecked  condition  of  the  Tungchow  road.  For 
the  years  that  the  road  was  all  but  impassable  for  im- 
perial wheels,  the  Celestial,  dragon  family  went  to  and 
fro  in  barges  drawn  by  men  along  the  canal  leading 
to  the  city  gates.  Steam  and  electric  launches  were 
next  employed,  and  had  the  coup  d'etat  been  averted 
and  progress  allowed  to  progress  at  the  pace  it  was 
acquiring,  the  Emperor  would  doubtless  soon  have 
been  guiding  his  own  automobile  over  this  splendid 
park  I'oad. 


THE  ENVIRONS  OP  PEKING  221 

Wheu  the  French  army  reached  the  Summer  Palace  in 
1860,  the  imperial  family  had  but  barely  fled  through 
a  side  gate,  and  tlie  French  officers  found  the  fan,  the 
hat,  the  pipe,  and  the  papers  that  the  Emperor  had  been 
using  in  his  private  apartments.  The  suburban  palace 
had  been  made  a  general  storehouse  and  place  of  safe- 
deposit  for  the  treasures  of  the  court  nobles  and  princes, 
in  addition  to  the  incredible  riches  the  emperors  had 
long  accumulated  there.  The  French  held  the  palace 
for  several  days  before  the  English  troops  came  up 
—looting  strictly  prohibited,  General  Montauban 
averred,  although  the  camp  of  his  men  at  the  gates 
overflowed  with  satin  garments  and  hangings,  and 
certain  French  soldiers  had  watches  and  jewels  to  sell 
to  any  who  wished  to  buy.  In  room  after  room, 
the  walls  were  built  over  with  divided  shelves  like 
cabinets,  and  crowded  with  such  pieces  of  porcelain, 
jade,  crystal,  and  jeweled  objects  as  even  the 
officers  had  never  seen  before.  When  it  was  decided 
to  burn  and  destroy  the  buildings,  as  a  direct  and 
personal  punishment  put  upon  the  erring  ruler,  rather 
than  to  punish  his  long-suffering,  misgoverned  peo- 
ple, and  as  a  retribution  on  the  very  spot  where  the 
foreign  captives  had  been  tortured  to  death,  the  place 
was  thrown  open  to  the  soldiers'  pillage.  The  em- 
perors of  two  dynasties  had  lavished  all  the  taste, 
talent,  and  treasures  of  the  empire  on  this  favorite 
residence.  Mogul,  Per.sian,  Chinese,  Indian,  Arab, 
Frencli,  and  Italian  architects  planned  and  decorated 
the  innumerable  i)alaces  and  pavilions  scattered 
through  these  parks,  and  from  Kanghsi's  times  until 
the  middle  of  the  century  the  most  gifted  artists  and 


222  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

artisans  were  assembled  at  ateliers  there,  where  paint- 
ing, illuminating,  carving,  enameling,  jade-,  gem-,  and 
glass-cutting,  lacquering,  and  every  branch  of  art  and 
art  industry  were  pursued  under  imperial  supervision. 
Miracles  of  beauty  and  marvels  of  cunning  work- 
manship emanated  from  these  imperial  ateliers,  to  be 
retained  by  the  Emperor  or  distributed  as  gifts,  and 
the  Summer  Palace  held  the  greatest  and  richest  col- 
lection of  any  art  museum  in  the  world  when  the  sol- 
diers were  turned  loose  in  it.  Every  writer— Chaplain 
McGee,  General  Wolseley,  Oliphant,  Rennie,  and  Sir 
Harry  Parkes— speaks  with  sorrow  of  the  senseless, 
brutal,  ignorant  destruction  of  the  incalculable  trea- 
sures the  place  contained.  Not  one  tenth  of  the  trea- 
sures were  rescued;  five  tenths  of  the  precious 
fragilities  were  smashed  by  the  butts  of  muskets  or 
hurled  about  by  skylarking  soldiers,  and  the  rest  were 
consumed  and  shivered  in  the  final  fire  and  explo- 
sions. Besides  what  the  men  could  pocket  or  carry 
with  them,  three  hundred  carts  were  forcibly  im- 
pressed, loaded  with  booty,  and  driven  out  of  the 
park — booty  which  has  since  enriched  museums  and 
private  collections  in  Europe  and  America.  The 
English  soldiers  and  officers,  who  had  a  poor  show 
and  second  culling  in  the  treasure-houses,  were  made 
to  turn  all  their  loot  into  a  common  store,  which  was 
auctioned  off  and  the  money  divided  among  the  sol- 
diers. The  English  officers,  having  waived  their  share 
in  the  prizes,  had  then  to  buy  any  souvenirs  they 
wished  to  take  hojne  from  China.  What  the  French 
had  they  kept,  and  one  understands  why  the  boule- 
vard hailed  General  Montauban  as  "  Due  de  Pillage  " 


THE   ENVIRONS   OF   PEKING  223 

as  often  as  Cuuut  Palikao,  and  why  French  palaces, 
museums,  chateaux,  and  the  homes  of  the  families  of 
the  French  officers  taking  part  in  the  allies'  war  are 
so  rich  in  gems  of  Chinese  art.  Even  within  a  few 
years,  an  exquisite  piece  of  jade,  carved  to  the  fine- 
ness of  lace,  was  sold  by  a  retired  French  officer  to  a 
collector,  with  the  promise  that  he  should  never  show 
it  nor  speak  of  it  in  Europe,  His  superior  officer 
had  wanted  it,  had  taxed  him  with  having  it,  and 
tried  to  make  him  give  it  up,  but  the  soiis-officier  got 
it  safely  away,  and  for  thirty  years  knew  that  they 
were  still  watching  to  see  if  he  sold  it.  There  were 
palace  and  temple  ceilings  whose  panels  were  plates 
of  pure  gold,  heavy  images  of  solid  gold  on  many 
altars,  stores  of  jewels  and  bullion  treasure,  and  such 
supplies  of  silk  garments  that  sepoys  and  zouaves 
masqueraded  in  imperial  robes  and  palace  uniforms, 
and  lined  their  tents  and  mud  barracks  with  palace 
fineries. 

Father  Ripa  has  described  the  palace  as  it  was  in 
Kanghsi's  time,  when  he  and  his  fellow-Jesuits  were 
laboring  to  beautify  it.  Those  artists  and  architects 
and  others  in  Kieulung's  time,  fresh  from  the  splen- 
dors of  Italy  and  Versailles,  designed  baroque  and 
rococo  and  Renaissance  structures,  as  bizarre  and  out- 
landish to  Chinese  eyes  as  Chinese  pavilions  and 
pagodas  are  to  European  eyes.  The  Italian  artists 
set  Chinese  carvers  to  work  upon  the  lace-like  orna- 
ment of  marble  pavilions,  loggias,  and  horseshoe  stair- 
ways, and  the  rainbow  tiles  of  the  Chinese  potters 
were  wrought  into  fantasies  of  architecture  never 
equaled  elsewhere.     Even  the  officers  who  had  to  set 


224  CHINA:    THE   LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

the  torch  and  touch  the  fuses  to  all  these  pillaged 
palaces  felt  the  pity  of  it.  The  burnin  g  palaces  lighted 
the  sky  for  two  nights  and  sent  black  clouds  of  smoke 
drifting  toward  frightened  Peking  for  days,  while  the 
work  of  destruction  was  pushed  to  tlie  farthest  little 
imperial  Trianon  in  the  folds  of  the  hills.  Tlie  one 
hilltop  temple  of  Wan-shou-shau,  and  here  and  there 
a  rainbow  pagoda  or  a  bronze  shrine,  were  sjiared  by 
a  regretful  British  officer,  but  years  of  neglect  soon 
gave  the  general  air  of  ruin  to  the  whole  scene. 

The  Summer  Palace  grounds,  Yuan-ming-yuan 
(*'  Round  and  Splendid  Garden  "),  were  wholly  aban- 
doned for  the  first  dozen  3'ears  of  the  regency.  All 
diplomatic  Peking  used  to  ride  and  ramble  and  picnic 
there,  and  extract  souvenirs  from  tlie  debris-heaps; 
but  when  the  young  Emperor  Tungchih  came  into 
power  the  work  of  reclamation  and  rebuilding  began, 
and  has  been  carried  on  intermittently  since,  so  that 
the  mile-square  park,  with  its  eighteen  gates  and 
''forty  beauties,"  afforded  a  favorite  residence  for 
Kwangsu  up  to  the  time  of  the  coup  d'etat.  The 
suburban  palace  has  again  become  a  treasure-house 
of  Chinese  art,  and  there  have  been  assembled  there 
miniature  railways  and  vessels,  European  carriages 
of  all  kinds,  jinrikishas,  bicycles,  clocks,  mechanical 
toys,  and  articles  de  Paris  and  Vienna  galore,  all 
sent  and  brought  by  returning  Chinese  envoys  from 
abroad  and  by  concessionaries  anxious  to  build  rail- 
ways, work  mines,  and  regenerate  China.  The  palaces 
were  so  well  mapped  and  described  in  the  past,  so 
thoroughly  photographed  in  the  years  of  neglect,  that 
one  has  a  tolerable  acquaintance  with  them  in  that 


THE  ENVIRONS  OF   PEKING  225 

way,  and  from  the  western  hills  he  can  identify  the 
buildings  in  the  great  parks. 

The  E-ho  Park,  or  Wan-shou-shan  {"  Hill  of  Ten 
Thousand  Ages  ")>  which  the  Empress  Dowager  chose 
and  restored  for  her  residence  with  moneys  diverted 
from  naval  and  railway  appropriations,  has  more  im- 
portance in  this  decade  than  the  Yuan-ming-yuan. 
Its  chief  feature  is  the  great  hill  crowned  with  a  Bud- 
dhist temple  of  rainbow  tiles,  which  was  spared  in  the 
general  demolition  of  the  buildings  that  crowded  both 
sides  of  the  steep,  knife-edged  ridge.  All  the  build- 
ings on  this  hill  are  Buddhist  and  date  back  many 
centuries.  From  the  marble-railed  lotus  lake,  steep 
terraces  and  a  lofty  stone  embankment  with  diverg- 
ing staircases  make  an  imposing  architectural  show, 
and  the  yellow  lamas'  silent  temple  at  the  top  com- 
mands the  noblest  view  over  the  imperial  parks  and 
the  plain  to  the  city  walls  and  towers.  At  the  foot 
of  the  hill,  a  lotus  lake  is  spread  out  on  one  side,  and 
on  the  other  side  a  larger  ornamental  water  is  crossed 
by  a  beautiful  marble  bridge,  with  a  pretty  kiosk 
floating  over  its  central  arches  and  a  marble  junk 
moored  beside  it.  An  exquisite  marble  bridge,  whose 
seventeen  oval  arches  are  doubled  in  the  still  water, 
leads  to  an  island  where  a  temple,  once  dedicated  to 
the  God  of  Rain,  was  the  place  of  detention  of  Kwangsu 
after  the  coup  d'etat  of  1898,  and  where  he  remained 
under  the  close  watch  of  eunuchs  for  all  the  weary 
time  after  progress  was  strangled  by  the  masterful 
dowager. 

There  is  yet  another  hill  of  temples  in  this  wonder- 
ful park,  but  all  its  structures  are  Taoist.      At  its 


226  CHINA:    THE   LONG-LIVED   EMPIRE 

foot  bubbles  up  the  Jade  Fountain  spring,  whose  clear 
waters  feed  the  palace  lakes  and  the  Peking  palace 
lakes,  whence  there  trickles  away  a  feeble  stream  past 
the  British  legation,  out  to  the  moats  and  ultimately  to 
the  Grand  Canal,  which  used  to  communicate  with 
Hangchow.  Kublai  Khan  saw  in  his  sleep  the  plan  of 
.Shangdu,the  hunting  palace  in  Inner  Mongolia,  beyond 
the  wall  and  beyond  Jehol.  Many  of  those  realized  fan- 
tasies of  dreamland  were  repeated  in  the  series  of 
parks  and  palaces,  imperial  demesnes,  and  princely 
villas  that  extended  from  Hai-tien's  protecting  camp 
into  the  far  hills,  and  other  monarchs  devised  unique 
features  to  add  to  the  pleasure-grounds.  Nothing  more 
unique,  perhaps,  has  ever  existed  than  the  Summer 
Palace  and  the  adjoining  parks  when  the  allies 
came  in  1860,  and  all  of  art,  architecture,  and  even 
landscape-gardening's  triumphs  were  obliterated  in  a 
trice.  It  was  a  blow  and  a  humiliation  from  which 
the  Emperor  never  recovered,  which  the  court  nobles 
have  never  forgotten  nor  forgiven,  which  rankles  in 
cultivated  Western  capitals  where  appreciation  of 
Oriental  art  has  come  as  the  latest  gift  and  delight  of 
this  century,  and  which  accomplished  not  nearly 
as  much  all  around  as  if  the  wonderful  buildings, 
the  pi-iceless  and  then  unappreciated  treasures,  had 
been  spared,  and  instead  the  cowardly  Emperor  liad 
been  followed  to  Jeliol,  and  brought  back  to  Peking 
as  a  prisoner. 


XVII 

THE   GREAT  WALL  OF   CHINA 

^N  Tnidsummer,  when  the  northern  sky  dark- 
ens for  only  a  few  hours,  an  early  start 
on  a  country  journey  is  made  at  two 
or  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  in  or- 
der to  get  beyond  the  walls  before  the 
stamping  donkeys  and  strings  of  camels  can  fill 
the  Peking  streets  with  suffocating  clouds  of  dust. 
In  the  golden  October,  one  always  meets  strings  of 
beady-eyed  Mongols  in  snug  fur  caps,  and  wonder- 
fully ragged  Chinese  trailing  their  camel-trains  in 
from  north  and  west  the  moment  those  gates  open  at 
sunrise. 

Around  the  Anting  or  main  north  Gate  of  Peace 
and  Tranquillity,  which  the  allied  troops  held  in  1860, 
and  on  whose  parapets  they  mounted  their  sentries 
and  artillery,  the  crowd  is  thickest,  and  streams  of 
vehicles,  pack-animals,  and  people  file  through  the 
deep  barrel  vaults  unceasingly.  Processions  of  cam- 
els and  wheelbarrows  come  in  from  the  plain,  loaded 
with  huge,  black,  wicker-cased  flagons  or  jars  of 
grease  from  Mongolia,  which,  brought  by  such  slow 

227 


228  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

transit  all  that  distance,  can  yet  be  sent  profitably  to 
France,  and  —  infragrant  idea  —  is  said  to  be  used 
there  in  the  manufacture  of  soaps  and  perfumes. 
One  grazes  scores  of  scavengers'  wheelbarrows  loaded 
with  the  city's  refuse,  which,  bought  and  carried  out 
each  morning,  is  sold  at  wholesale  suburban  depots 
to  enrich  the  poor,  alkaline  clay  soil,  an  ambulant 
sewer  system  that  never  disturbs  Chinese  senses. 

A  sandy  common  outside  the  Anting  Gate  is  the 
parade-ground  of  the  Peking  garrison  and  field  force. 
One  may  see  the  flower  of  the  Manchu  banners  put 
through  their  antic  drills  there  any  day,  their  feats 
of  archery,  stone-lifting,  stone-throwing,  jousting,  and 
monkey-posturings  —  puerilities  the  more  absurd 
when  indulged  in  in  sight  of  An  ting's  towers,  where 
modern  weapons  and  artillery  defeated  them  forty 
years  ago.  Like  the  doomed  Bourbons,  the  Manchus 
have  forgotten  nothing  and  learned  nothing,  and,  like 
all  other  survivors  of  outlived  ideas,  must  go.  Every 
Manchu  is  primarily  a  soldier,  a  personal  defender  of 
the  Emperor.  They  are  the  ''  Old  Guard."  The  Man- 
chus are  forbidden  to  trade  and  to  intermarry  with 
Chinese,  and,  whether  actively  in  the  force  or  not, 
each  one  is  given  his  rice,— literally  fed  from  the  pub- 
lic crib, —  his  three  taels  a  month,  and  a  sheepskin 
coat  each  year.  His  name  must  be  on  the  roll  of  one  of 
the  banners,  whether  he  ever  wears  uniform  or  throws 
a  stone,  and  even  the  stalwart  head-boy  or  steward  at 
the  foreign  hotel  was  one  of  the  loyal  force,  going  regu- 
larly to  headquarters  on  pay-day,  although  usually  the 
stipend  of  such  absentees  is  swallowed  up  or  squeezed 
to  a  fraction  by  superior  officers.     Half  the  servants 


THE   GREAT   WALL  OF  CHINA  231 

in  each  legation  are  baunermen,  making  no  disguise 
of  the  fact,  and  not  for  that  reason  necessarily  spies 
any  more  than  the  other  servants.  Because  of  these 
special  privileges  and  perquisites,  the  Chinese  hate 
the  Manchus  of  the  rank  and  file,  the  fatted,  heredi- 
tary pensioners,  the  ''  old  soldiers,"  far  more  bitterly 
than  the  ex-Confederate  in  America  hates  the  Northern 
soldier,  pensioned  at  the  nation's  expense  for  crush- 
ing the  Southern  Confederacy.  The  Manchus,  blind 
to  the  signs,  go  on  with  their  medieval  drills,  stub- 
bornly turning  out  jingals  and  archaic  weapons  from 
their  modern  arsenals,  and  hastening  their  end.  No- 
thing contributed  so  much,  nothing  in  the  fevered  pro- 
gram of  progress  so  precipitated  Kwangsu's  downfall 
and  constituted  the  last  straw  on  the  Manchu's  back,  as 
the  plan  to  put  the  army  in  foreign  clothes  and  wholly 
under  foreign  drill.  One  watches  the  bannermen's 
antics  with  mixed  emotions— amusement,  contempt, 
impatience,  and  the  excitement  of  a  theater  audience 
when  the  denouement  of  a  tragedy  drags,  when  just 
retribution  is  deferred  too  long. 

Our  little  procession  of  mule-litters,  donkeys,  and 
carts  wound  northwestward  from  this  parade-ground, 
in  the  lines  of  ruts  that  straggled  everywhere  on  the 
unfenced  plain.  Strings  of  camels  swung  and  rocked 
their  way  past  us  with  clanging  bells ;  and,  as  the 
harvest  was  just  on,  every  field  was  dotted  with 
groups  of  blue-clad  workers.  Rich  bunches  of  millet 
were  stacked  l)y  every  mud  farm-house,  and  blindfolded 
donkeys  dragged  stone  cylinders  around  and  around 
the  hard  clay  threshing-floors,  painfully  wearing  the 
millet   kernels    out   of    their   husks.      We    plodded 


232  CHINA:   THE   LONG-LIVED   EMPIRE 

through  villages  where  the  one  street  was  a  deep 
trough  or  ditch  between  the  houses,  half  full  of  mud 
and  stagnant  water.  "  An  old  road  becomes  a  river 
as  surely  as  an  old  wife  becomes  a  mother-in-law," 
says  the  Chinese  proverb;  and  one  wonders  if  the 
great  system  of  canals  in  China  was  not  self-made 
instead  of  by  man's  intention— the  people  taking  to 
boats  from  necessity  when  all  the  roads  became  and 
remained  small  sluggish  rivers.  There  were  ancient 
and  established  mud-sloughs  on  the  way,  where  the 
mules  floundered  knee-deep,  and  the  carters  and 
muleteers,  helpless  in  their  silly  cotton  shoes,  leaped 
along  stepping-stones,  purposely  put  beside  these 
long-established  mud-sinks.  Women  were  at  work 
in  the  fields  and  bearing  burdens  along  the  road, 
hobbling  smartly  on  poor  dwarfed  feet,  each  one  with 
her  hair  dressed  in  an  elaborate  *'  magpie  tail "  and 
decorated  with  flowers,  even  to  the  woman  who, 
yoked  in  company  with  a  blindfolded  donkey,  was 
grinding  meal  on  a  stone  table  in  a  farm-house 
yard. 

The  cook  and  the  boy  had  been  sent  on  ahead,  and 
when  we  had  crossed  a  wrecked  stone  bridge  and 
gone  half-way  up  Sha-ho's  deep  ditch  street,  a  turn 
into  the  yard  of  an  inn  found  tiffin  ready  to  serve 
in  the  bare  room  of  honor  at  the  upper  end  of  the 
court.  The  yard  was  filled  with  the  outfit  required  to 
take  four  people  and  two  servants  on  a  four  days' 
journey,  the  mattresses,  bedding,  food,  cooking-uten- 
sils, and  tablcAvare  all  having  to  be  brought  with  us 
from  Peking.  Our  animals  fed  in  full  view  as  we 
fed,  and  hideous  black  swine  wallowed  and  rooted  in 


THE   GREAT   WALL   OF   CHINA  233 

the  same  central  court,  which  was  securely  shut  off 
from  the  street  by  ponderous  barred  gates. 

Sha-ho,  the  Sandy  River,  flows  by  another  branch 
in  a  shallow  bed  on  the  other  side  of  the  village,  and 
was  once  spanned  by  a  splendid  stone  bridge  whose 
middle  sections  still  stand.  Floods  have  swept 
around  and  washed  away  either  approach,  leaving  a 
bridge  without  ends  standing  in  midstream,  islanded 
by  the  little  mud-flood  called  a  river.  The  mythical 
marble  beasts  that  once  guarded  the  sloping  cause- 
ways of  approach  lie  broken  with  other  blocks  and 
rubbish ;  even  imperial  tablets  are  half  embedded  in 
the  clay  banks,  and  but  few  carved  parapets  and 
panels  remain.  The  thick  stone  slabs  of  this  road- 
way, which  the  least  care  would  have  preserved  for 
all  time,  are  now  thrown  at  every  angle,  and  over 
their  protruding  ends  and  edges  the  animals  pick 
their  way,  and  only  the  iron-bound  Peking  cart  could 
survive  such  wrecks  of  roads. 

The  passenger  crawls  into  a  mule-litter  while  it 
rests  on  the  ground,  it  is  lifted  up,  and  the  shafts  at 
each  end  are  fastened  to  the  mules'  collars.  To  en- 
ter or  leave  the  litter  afterward  seems  a  problem,  but 
the  driver  bends  his  knee,  and  one  steps  up  on  it  and 
crawls  in  head  first,  on  all  fours,  as  ignominiously 
as  into  the  Peking  cart.  The  mule-litter  has  points 
of  comfort,  and  affords  a  crude  sort  of  luxury  after 
the  harsh  bells  have  been  removed  from  the  fore  and 
aft  mule.  With  mattresses,  pillows,  and  fur  wraps, 
one  may  recline  at  ease  or  sit  erect,  watching  every- 
thing ahead  and  on  either  side  througli  the  sliding 
glass  windows.     With  the  steady,  even  steps  of  well- 


234  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

trained  mules,  one  can  read  comfortably,  or  more 
comfortably  be  soothed  asleep  by  the  gentle,  easy 
motion  of  the  deliberate  right-foot,  left-foot,  right- 
foot,  left-foot  of  the  long-eared  motive  power. 

As  we  ueared  the  hills,  flocks  of  sheep  and  herds 
of  ponies  passed  us  in  clouds  of  golden  dust,  driven 
by  shaggy  Mongols,  and  endless  files  of  camels,  loaded 
with  furs,  wool,  salt,  and  coal,  came  down  from  Mon- 
golia, the  Mang-i-Mang  of  their  bells  beating  slowly 
in  the  air.  Then  camels,  and  camels,  and  more 
camels  went  up  with  their  loads  of  brick-tea,  the 
easy-going,  slow-footed,  swaying  beasts  moving  in 
such  automatic  regularity  that,  watching  them  in  the 
mellow  autumn  afternoon  sun,  one  dozed  away,  hyp- 
notized by  the  steady  metronome  stroke  of  the  cara- 
van's tread. 

At  sunset,  wlien  the  hills  were  at  hand,  and  had 
turned  sapphire  and  intensest  violet,  with  a  sharp 
chill  in  their  long  shadows,  we  came  to  Naiikou,  and 
stopped  at  an  inn  near  the  massive  city  gate.  The 
ruined  watch-towers  on  the  hills  above  and  the  crum- 
bled towers  of  tlie  town  wall  are  but  first  of  the  chain 
of  forts,  walls,  and  defenses  which  the  Ming  em- 
perors built  in  the  pass  to  keep  back  the  Mongol  Ta- 
tars, wliose  dynasty  they  had  overthrown.  From 
earliest  times,  the  ravaging  and  conquering  horsemen 
from  tlie  plains  have  poured  down  through  this  nar- 
row Nankou  Pass  to  the  Great  Plain  of  China,  as 
Greeks,  Persians,  Mongols,  and  Afghans  have  come 
down  tlirough  the  Khyber  Pass  to  India.  Xankou's 
defenses  made  it  the  Jamrud  of  this  pass,  and  in  the 
heart  of  tlif  dclih'  11i<m'<'  is  a  great  fort,  (•()rr(\'<pon(ling  to 


THE  GREAT  WALL  OF    CHINA  237 

Ali  Musjid  in  the  Khyber.  This  narrow  Nankou,  which 
leads  through  the  hills  for  fifteen  miles  to  the  vast 
grass  plains  of  Mongolia,  is  a  lesser  affair  in  every 
way  than  the  Khyber,  but  in  some  of  its  wUder  parts 
it  quite  reminds  one  of  that  wild  gateway  to  India.  It 
is  a  gloomy,  desolate  little  canon  for  the  greater 
part,  but  travel  through  it  is  safe,  brigandage  is  un- 
known, and  there  are  no  soldiers  in  evidence  along 
the  line.  One  goes  up  the  pass  on  any  day  without 
escort  or  arms,  and  the  caravans  jog  their  way  uncon- 
cernedly, not  hastening  to  the  shelter  of  fortified  se- 
rais before  sunset  from  necessity.  No  one  on  the 
road  glares  at  the  foreigner  with  such  hatred  and 
ferocity  as  the  Afridis  and  Afghans  do  on  the  two 
days  of  the  week  that  the  Khyber  is  open  and 
guarded,  sentineled  every  hundred  yards,  and  each  vis- 
itor provided  with  an  armed  sowar.  Beyond  Nankou, 
also,  lies  Russia ;  the  northwestern  gateway  to  China 
an  exact  matchpiece  for  the  one  to  India ;  the  path- 
way of  Kublai  Khan  and  aU  the  conquering  Tatars 
into  this  rich  empire  of  the  East  far  easier  than  the 
pathway  of  Alexander  and  the  Great  Mogul  into 
India. 

As  the  hills  overhanging  Nankou  gi'ew  blue-black, 
a  huge,  pinkish-white  moon  rose  above  the  horizon 
haze  on  the  eastern  plain.  The  white  moonlight 
and  the  long  northern  afterglow  gave  us  the  chance 
to  explore  the  dilapidated  old  town.  Under  the 
great  vaulted  arch  of  the  city  gate  the  shadows  and 
darkness  were  intense,  and  one  had  to  feel  his  steps 
carefully  over  broad  flagstones,  worn  smoother  than 
glass  by  the  spongy  bare  feet  of  camels,  as  oily  and 


238  CHINA:    THE   LONG-LIVED   EMPIRE 

slippery  as  if  woru  by  human  feet.  A  shaggy  kuee 
touched  me  iu  the  depths  of  the  black  vault,  a  great  head 
swayed  over  my  head,  and,  without  any  noise  or  warn- 
ing, we  found  ourselves  slipping  about  in  darkness, 
mixed  up  with  a  line  of  camels.  They  came  on  and 
on  irresistibly,  with  that  fixed  automatic  gait,  push- 
ing against  their  leaders,  rubbing  their  packs,  groan- 
ing, and  showing  their  yellow  teeth  and  frothing  lips 
as  tlieir  di'ivers  tried  to  check  and  straighten  them 
in  line  again.  We  cared  no  more  for  local  color, 
nor  for  provincial  life ;  for  seeing  if  any  foreign  goods 
were  for  sale,  or  if  any  foreign  ideas  had  penetrated 
those  medieval  gates. 

The  inn-yard  was  filled  with  our  carts  and  litters, 
and,  in  the  stream  of  light  playing  out  from  the  cook- 
house, carters  and  muleteers  sat  on  their  heels  and 
watched  the  gifted  Liu  ("Ever-bubbling  Fountain") 
evolve  the  same  elaborate  dinner  of  civilization  we 
should  have  had  iu  Peking.  Our  apartments  of  honor 
at  the  upper  end  of  the  court  had  each  a  stone  plat- 
form-bed, or  kang,  on  which  our  mattresses  were  laid. 
Our  inn  was  tolerably  clean,  because  it,  with  all  the 
inns  on  the  way  to  Siberia,  had  just  been  officially 
visited  and  scraped,  cleaned,  scrubbed,  and  put  in  so- 
called  oi'der  for  Count  Cassini,  bearing  to  St.  Peters- 
burg that  famous  convention  by  which  China  signed 
away  all  Manchuria  in  the  guise  of  a  railway  conces- 
sion, in  return  for  nothing  at  all— the  reward  for  the 
Shimouoseki  protest.  The  cobwebs  and  rubbish-heaps 
were  gone  from  the  rooms  of  honor  in  every  inn  on 
this  end  of  the  overland  road  to  Europe ;  fresh  ])aper 
had  been  ])asted  on  window-frames  and  lattices,  and 


THE   GREAT   WALL  OF  CHINA  239 

doors  had  been  mended  after  a  fashion.  Country 
travel  in  China  is  ahnost  tolerable  when  one  can  have 
a  dreaded  and  triumphant  envoy  as  avant-courier, 
and  at  dinner  we  formally  wished  health  and  long  life 
to  the  victor  of  the  bloodless  campaign,  the  uncon- 
scious rejuvenator  of  a  long  chain  of  Chinese  inns. 
Before  daylight,  the  nosing  of  a  donkey  roused  one  of 
our  party,  who  found  that  during  the  night  the  de- 
crepit door  had  sagged  open,  and  little  four-foot  had 
also  enjoyed  the  bedchamber  put  in  order  for  the 
great  envoy. 

A  candle-light  breakfast  and  a  sunrise  start 
took  us  through  Nankou's  suburbs  early  and  started 
us  on  up  the  rugged  defile  that  leads  to  the  Pa-ta-ling 
Gate  in  the  Great  Wall.  Recent  chronicles  of  travel 
had  told  of  the  awful  condition  of  the  flood-wrecked 
road  through  this  pass,  but  a  progressive  mandarin 
coming  to  this  Nankou  district  began  road-making  in 
a  serious  way,  and  a  toll  of  a  few  cash  on  each  passing 
animal  soon  paid  for  a  new  road,  which  was  as  smooth, 
well  gi'aded,  and  well  drained  as  roads  were  four 
centuries  ago. 

The  steep  and  bare  hills  rose  higher  as  the  defile 
narrowed ;  walls  and  towers  began  to  show,  curving 
over,  up,  and  down  the  hills— battlemented  walls  that 
came  from  nowhere  and  ran  there  too— purposeless, 
disconnected,  picturesque  old  walls  that  reached  down 
and  encircled  a  village,  ran  up  and  bristled  with  watch- 
towers,  and  disported  their  ponderous  lines  in  ex- 
travagant loopings  and  leapings  in  precipitous  places 
where  only  goat-men  could  have  built.  Tliere  were 
views  suggesting   Italian   hilltop   fortresses   around 

13 


240  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

Chu-yuug-kuan,  the  midway  fort,  a  half-deserted 
place  with  double  walls  and  strong  towers.  One  gate- 
way of  the  fourteenth  century,  elaborately  sculptured 
on  its  outer  arches,  is  lined  with  carved  tablets,  where 
Buddhist  inscriptions  are  repeated  in  the  strange  let- 
terings of  six  languages— Sanskrit,  Chinese,  Mongol, 
Tibetan,  Uigur,  and  Niuchih— for  the  benefit  of  those 
people  passing  through.  Originally,  this  decorated 
arch  was  only  the  foundation  of  a  noble  pagoda  built 
by  the  Mings,  but  obligingly  pulled  down  when  the 
Mongols  refused  to  pass  under  this  triumphal  spire, 
which,  standing  on  the  head  of  the  dragon  of  Chihli, 
secured  a  good  fung-shui  for  the  whole  province. 
Wayfarers  drank  tea  at  stone  tables  outside  the  inns, 
and  shaggy  Mongols,  afoot,  munched  at  the  rosaries 
of  crab-apples  strung  around  their  necks,  or  pared  and 
cut  away  at  huge  persimmons  as  they  walked,  strew- 
ing the  path  with  great  flakes  of  the  red-gold  peel. 
In  serais  along  the  way,  camels  were  resting  for  a 
day  behind  breastworks  of  brick-tea,  and  Mongols 
lounged  in  the  traditional  black  felt  tents  as  if  on  the 
great,  grass  plain. 

The  pass  grew  wilder  and  more  lonely  beyond  that 
once  great  garrison  town ;  all  signs  of  cultivation 
disappeared,  and  save  for  some  rock-hewn,  pinnacle- 
perched  temples  and  holy  inscriptions  carved  deep  in 
the  solid  rock  by  the  Ming  builders  and  rebuilders  of 
the  maze  of  defensive  walls,  there  were  no  signs  of  hab- 
itation for  miles.  As  the  defile  grew  narrower,  the  road 
became  a  mere  cut  or  torrent-bed  between  precipitous 
walls  of  gloomy  and  savage  aspect.  Then,  ahead  and 
beyond,  massive  walls  began  to  appear,  true  Chinese 


THE  GREAT  WALL  OF  CHINA  243 

walls,  Chaug  Tangs,  Great  Walls.  Loops,  sections, 
and  running  spurs  of  battlemented  walls  appeared 
here,  there,  and  everywhere,  and  then  disappeared 
entirely — disconnected,  aimless,  unexpected  pieces  of 
masonry,  that  gave  picturesque  sky-lines  to  each  bar- 
rier range  and  hill  profile. 

At  the  Cha-tao  or  Pa-ta-ling  Gate,  at  the  top  of 
Nankou  Pass,  where  the  Great  Wall  actually  barred 
out  and  held  the  nomad  hordes  at  bay  for  ages,  there 
is  a  little  level  plateau,  or  amphitheater,  encircled  by 
bastions  and  defended  by  massive  towers.  The  wall 
crosses  the  pass  squarely,  a  vast  gateway  giving  one 
a  view  out  and  down  to  the  green  hills  and  valleys  of 
farthest  Chihli  and  Inner  Mongolia.  The  bare  arch 
remains,  but  its  iron-studded  gates  are  gone,  and  there 
is  no  garrison,  not  a  sentry,  nor  a  sign  of  life.  The 
parapets  and  towers  are  crumbling  a  little ;  weeds  and 
bushes  grow  everywhere,  and  the  silence  of  the  high 
pass,  the  deserted  road,  and  the  empty  towers  make  this 
upland  of  the  enchanted  castles  more  impressive  than 
even  that  far-away  sea  end  of  the  wall  at  Shanhaikwan. 
The  wall  sweeps  up  sharply  from  either  side  of  the 
gate,  making  easy  tangents  and  angles  from  tower  to 
tower  as  it  climbs  the  hills,  and  with  all  its  colossal 
size  and  huge  impressiveness  it  is  most  graceful, 
winding  in  long,  slow  sweeps  and  curves  over  the 
hills  and  far-away  heights. 

The  deserted  towers  are  melancholy  reminders  of 
past  defenders,  who  bugled  and  battled  with  the  Ta- 
tar hordes  for  ages ;  and  European  imagination,  by 
tremendous  effort,  can  re{)eople  these  battlements  and 
the    valleys  beyond  with  the  opposing  forces.     No 


244  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

one  can  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  Great  Wall  at 
Cha-tao.  The  civilian  feels  the  charm  of  its  tremen- 
dous sweeps  and  curves,  the  picturesqueness  and 
the  poetry  of  the  ancient  place,  while  military  men 
and  engineers  are  possessed  and  spellbound  by  this 
grand  monument  of  defensive  warfare.  General  Wil- 
son declared  that,  though  ''laid  out  in  total  defi- 
ance of  the  rules  of  military  engineering,  yet  the 
walls  are  so  solid  and  inaccessible,  and  the  gates  so 
well  arranged  and  defended,  that  it  would  puzzle  a 
modern  army  with  a  first-class  siege-train  to  get 
through  it,  if  any  effort  whatever  were  made  for  its 
defense.-'  It  was  plain  to  him  that,  in  the  old  days 
of  the  wild  horsemen,  even  men  armed  with  stones 
could  have  held  it,  only  treachery  or  gross  neglect 
ever  leaving  it  possible  for  the  tribesmen  to  possess 
or  pass  it. 

This  magnificent  wall,  that  bars  the  great  trade 
route,  is  not  the  old  original  wall  of  the  Emperor 
Shi-Hwang-Ti  (215  B.C.),  but  merely  the  inner  Great 
Wall,  a  modern  seventh-century  affair,  splendidly 
rebuilt  by  the  Mings  in  the  fifteenth  century,  a  loop 
to  provide  a  second  and  most  effectual  barrier  against 
the  Mongol  Tatars,  who  for  centuries  had  crossed  the 
wall  and  poured  in  through  that  gateway  to  the  Great 
Plain  of  China.  That  very  earliest,  original  wall, 
built  by  Alexander  the  Great's  contemporary,  is  met 
at  Kalgan,  a  two  days'  journey  beyond  the  village  of 
Cha-tao,  but  is  so  ruined,  so  nearly  a  rubbish-heap 
and  earth  embankment,  that  it  is  a  very  poor  sight 
after  this  stately  wall  of  Yunglo.  A  railway  line 
will  surelv  be  built  alon<r  this  ancient  trade  route. 


THE   GREAT   WALL  OF  CHINA  247 

It  is  too  much  a  commercial  necessity  to  be  delayed 
many  years  after  the  Trans-Siberian  line  is  completed, 
with  however  much  modesty  and  surprise  Russians 
in  China  may  deprecate  one's  prophecy  of  such  an 
extension  of  the  great  overland  road  directly  into 
Peking.  Until  that  railway  comes,  one  must  push  on 
to  Kalgan  with  the  same  explorer's  outfit  he  brings 
from  Peking,  following  the  path  of  the  Mongol  and 
Kin  Tatar  invaders,  passing  one  large  prefectural 
town,  one  ruined  imperial  summer  palace,  and  that 
strange  eyehole  through  the  solid  rock  of  a  mountain 
summit  which  Kublai  Khan  cut  with  a  single  mighty 
arrow.  At  Kalgan  several  caravan  routes  unite,  and 
at  this  great  trade  center  and  in  its  caravansaries  Rus- 
sian sights  and  signs  are  conspicuous,  the  edges  of  the 
two  empires  there  definitely  meeting,  despite  the  lines 
on  geographers'  maps.  The  ruble,  the  samovar,  and 
the  leather  boot  appear,  eloquent  signs  of  Muscovite 
empire. 

The  trip  for  a  good  traveler— not  for  those  whom 
John  Muir  calls  "  soft  and  succulent  people,"  fit  for 
American  stage-coaches— is  from  Kalgan  eastward 
through  Mongolia  to  the  Ku-pei-kou  Gate  of  the 
Great  Wall,  seventy  miles  northeast  of  Peking. 
Roman  missions  and  a  Trappist  monastery  hid  in 
the  Mongolian  hills  will  shelter  a  passing  European 
for  a  night,  but  otherwise  he  camps  like  the  nomad 
herdsmen  who  occupy  the  great  ''grass  country" 
which  everywhere  stretches  away  from  the  edge  of 
the  ancient  wall  like  the  ranch  lands  of  western 
America.  M.  Prejevalski  and  Dr.  Bushell  mapped 
such  a  route  in  their  journeys  many  years  ago,  the 


248  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

latter  establishing  definitely  the  site  of  the  Mongol 
emperors'  old  summer  palace  of  Shangdu,  that "  stately 
pleasure-dome  decreed "  by  Kublai  Khan,  in  realiza- 
tion of  a  palace  seen  in  dreams.  A  little  detour  before 
reaching  Ku-pei-kou  will  show  the  imperial  palace  at 
Jehol,  and  some  Buddhist  monasteries  or  lama  for- 
tresses like  nothing  outside  of  Tibet. 

It  is  satisfaction  enough  for  every-day  visitors  to 
sit  behind  the  parapet  of  the  wall  at  Pa-ta-ling  and 
let  the  association  and  immensity  of  the  great  con- 
struction at  that  one  point  overpower  him.  The  day 
I  went  up  the  pass,  the  sky  grew  overcast  toward 
noon,  the  wind  blew  strong  and  cold  through  that 
funnel-mouthed  gorge,  and  the  gray  light  and  gloomy 
clouds  lent  savage  grandeur  to  the  stupendous  relic 
and  its  wild  landscape  setting.  There,  on  the  great- 
est piece  of  masonry  in  the  world,  the  one  artificial 
construction  on  the  face  of  the  earth  that  may  be 
seen  by  the  inhabitants  of  Mars,  the  baser  things 
of  this  world  obtruded,  and  although  Wanli  Chang 
Ching,  the  "  Ten  Thousand  Li  Wall,"  possessed  our 
souls,  we  degraded  its  noblest  tower  to  a  kitchen,  its 
parapet  to  a  picnic-ground,  Wliere  warriors  had 
stood,  and  the  quaint  Ming  cannon  had  rebounded,  we 
basely  ate,  sandwiches  and  chicken  wings  serving  as 
pointers  as  one  military  or  picturesque  feature  and 
another  of  the  great  barrier  caught  a  fascinated  eye. 

There  must  have  been  giants  in  those  days,  if  the 
old  guards  used  the  terre-plein  for  promenade  and 
highway,  for  what  looked  to  be  even,  ordinary  stair- 
case steps,  as  the  wall  sloped  up  to  a  great  hill  tower, 
proved  to  be  steep  terraces.     In  every  direction  one 


THE   GREAT  WALL  OF  CHINA  249 

saw  walls  and  towers,  and  more  and  more  walls  pur- 
suing their  extravagant,  illogical  course.  Small  won- 
der the  Chinese  began  wall-building  in  B.C.,  if  they 
ever  expected  to  complete  the  plan  in  a.d.  Our 
athletes,  who  persisted  to  the  highest  tower,  became 
mere  specks  to  the  eye  as  they  slowly  ascended,  and 
when  they  came  back,  all  spent  and  battered,  they 
excitedly  protested  that  the  Pyramids  were  "  not  in 
it, "  mere  isolated  heaps  of  building-stone  that  they 
are. 


XVIII  . 

THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  MING  TOMBS 

[HE  kang  was  harder,  degrees  more  un- 
yielding, than  a  Philippine  "sleeping- 
machine,"  and  a  more  undeniable  plane 
table  on  the  second  night  at  Nankou ; 
but,  rising  by  the  light  of  dawn,  we 
were  under  way  by  sunrise  of  the  most  ideal  of 
Chinese  autumn  days.  It  was  the  very  dream  of 
our  own  Indian  summer,  and  after  the  ripe  red 
sun  had  burst  through  the  purple  and  lilac  hazes 
around  the  horizon,  it  soared  into  a  cloudless,  pale 
vault,  and  poured  down  such  a  glory  of  warm  sunshine 
as  transfigured  all  that  hill  border-land  of  the  Great 
Plain  of  China.  The  whole  earth  was  a  color-study, 
and  where  the  russet,  dun,  and  golden  stubble  of  the 
fields  was  plowed  under  it  only  yielded  more  and  more 
tones  of  warm  brown  and  dull  amber.  The  near  hills 
were  as  bare  as  those  of  our  New  Mexico,  and,  like 
them,  veined  and  fretted  with  marvelous  transparent 
blue  shadows,  every  distance  softly,  hazily  lilac  and 
azure,  and  the  far  hills  duskily  wine-red  and  purple. 
After  all  this  glow  and  glory  and  bloom  of  earth  and 

250 


THE  VALLEY  OF   THE  MING  TOMBS  251 

air,  there  were  further  color-revelations  in  the  belt  of 
persimmon  orchards  that  bands  the  foot-hills.  Blue- 
clad  peasants  climbed  trees  whose  foliage  blazed  with 
the  richest  frost-hues,  and  whose  branches  bent  over 
with  the  weight  of  the  great  golden,  red-orange 
fruits— riper  and  richer  than  the  golden  apples  of  the 
fabled  Hesperides.  We  had  ten  miles  of  such  orchard 
scenery,  everywhere  the  dull-blue  clothes  of  the  peo- 
ple giving  a  last  touch  to  the  color-scheme,  and  every- 
where the  brown  earth  heaped  with  the  glistening, 
gorgeous  fruits.  The  air  was  the  wine  of  the  year ; 
every  sound  came  through  it  softly;  and  the  blue- 
cotton  people  seemed  to  have  gone  abroad  to  plow  the 
amber  earth,  to  climb  the  crimson-and-gold  trees,  only 
to  produce  artistic  effects.  Even  the  mules,  plodding 
gently  through  the  slumberous  October  sunshine, 
must  have  enjoyed  it.  All  the  world  "composed" 
itself;  everything  "keyed"  and  was  in  harmony. 
Near  each  yellow-brown  mud  and  thatch  farm-house, 
yellow-brown  farmers  in  mellowed  blue  garments 
drove  blindfolded  donkeys  around  the  threshing-floor ; 
and,  in  fields  of  stunted  bushes,  whole  families  were 
digging  and  pulling  up  peanuts,  and  sifting  the  crop 
clean  in  square  hanging  sieves  that  rocked  and  dipped 
like  huge  corn-poppers.  These  "  goober "  farmers 
seemed  as  contented  and  happy  as  if  taxes  were  light 
and  the  government  good  to  them,  and  were  friendly 
to  the  stranger,  as  they  usually  are  out  of  the  cities, 
away  from  the  officials  and  the  pestilent  literati. 

At  one  place  the  road  streamed  with  country  folk 
hastening  to  a  village  temple,  where  a  theatrical  play 
was  to  run  its  course.    The  women  and  children  were 


252  CHINA:  THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

powdered  and  rouged,  and  dressed  in  their  best.  Each 
poorest  one  wore  tinsel  and  flowers  in  her  shining 
black  hair,  and  green  glass  mockeries  of  jade  ear-rings 
and  bracelets.  All  were  smiling  and  good-humored, 
and  stepped  off  smartly  with  a  stiff,  stilted,  goat-like 
gait,  some  walking  two  or  three  miles  on  their  poor 
stumps  of  feet  pointing  sharply  from  elephantine 
ankles.  A  few  great  ladies  rode  astride  of  donkeys, 
with  their  useless  feet  shod  in  tiny  two-inch  doll 
slippers. 

Each  hour  the  sky  overhead  became  a  deeper,  more 
marvelous  blue,  and,  skirting  the  Peking  plain,  we  fol- 
lowed each  curve  in  the  hills,  and  entered  the  sacred 
imperial  valley  of  tombs  by  a  gap  in  the  long-ruined 
wall.  Crops  stood  ripening  all  over  the  valley's  level, 
and  profane  plows  were  sacrilegiously  turning  over 
the  stubble  and  the  sacred  soil,  the  imperial  yellow 
tiles  of  the  "  Thirteen  Sepulchers ''  glimmering  each  in 
its  separate  grove  of  old  cedars,  niched  around  the 
amphitheater's  rim. 

Protruding  edges  of  massive  paving-blocks  told  that 
there  had  once  been  a  road,  and  a  dilapidated  stone 
bridge  spanned  a  ravine  and  led  to  a  paved  avenue 
that  curved  up  through  a  grove  of  trees  to  the  solid 
outer  gatewa}'  of  the  temple  and  tomb  of  the  Em- 
peror Yunglo.  The  three  doors  in  the  massive  red 
tower  or  gate-house  were  shut ;  not  a  sound  nor  a  soul 
responded  to  the  beating  and  shouts  of  our  guides  and 
leather-lunged  muleteers.  We  feared  that  the  cross- 
ing out  of  the  words  ''  Ming  Tombs  "  from  the  Chi- 
nese passports  obtained  from  the  viceroy  of  the 
province   at   Tientsin,  an    annoying   vagary  of   the 


THE  VALLEY  OF   THE  MING   TOMBS  253 

yamun  for  that  season  ouly,  might  really  mean  an 
exclusion  past  bribery.  The  last  descendant  of  the 
Mings  and  the  officials  whom  the  government  sends 
with  him  for  the  annual  worship  each  autumn  had 
returned  to  Peking  before  we  started  for  Nankou,  so 
that  we  were  safe  from  encountering  any  official 
retinues.  Pounding  and  shouting  brought  no  answer ; 
then  one  carter  pushed  open  a  side  wicket,  and  we 
followed  in  through  a  grass-grown  court  and  on  to 
the  terrace  of  the  second  gate-house,  surrounded  by  a 
wonderful  balustrade  of  white  marble  carved  to  the 
fineness  of  an  ivory  jewel-casket.  With  a  wild  ki-}^- 
ing,  the  angry  yelps  of  wolves  robbed  of  their  prey, 
ragged  gate-keepers  came  running  toward  us;  but 
we  were  inside  the  walls,  the  chance  of  hard  bargain- 
ing was  gone,  and  the  lupine  keepers  could  only  storm 
and  rage.  There  was  no  chance  to  bar  us  out  from 
any  court  then,  to  haggle  for  any  unusual  tiao,  and  our 
whole  retinue  grew  jovial  at  the  keepers'  lost  "  face," 
the  most  enjoyable  of  all  jokes  to  this  hard-natured, 
humorless  race. 

There  were  venerable  cedars  and  pines  in  the  sec- 
ond court,  and  the  usual  little  tiled  furnaces,  where 
all  bits  of  paper  once  honored  with  written  charac- 
ters are  burned.  A  second  yellow-tiled  building,  with 
red-lacquered  columns,  latticed  panels,  and  bracketed 
eaves,  stood  on  a  broad  marble  terrace  whose  balus- 
trade was  carved  over  with  dragons  and  exquisite  re- 
lief ornaments.  This  building  held  the  shrine  of  the 
tablet,  a  simple  gold-lettered  bit  of  wood  which 
stands  as  the  representative  of  the  spirit,  the  soul  of 
Yunglo,  the  Grand  Monarque,  greatest  of  Ming  em- 


254  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

perors.  The  Marquis  Chu,  last  lineal  descendant  of 
the  Mings,  might  have  worshiped  there  only  four 
days  previously,  burned  incense  and  made  offerings 
on  the  dingy  table,  but  there  vv^as  no  sign  of  it.  The 
altar  ornaments  were  most  trumpery,  and  the  guar- 
dian paid  no  heed  when  a  camera  was  set  beside 
them  and  focused  on  the  imperial  tablet,  the  uncov- 
ered soul  itself.  In  the  last  inner  courtyard  a  noble 
pailow  and  a  colossal  bronze  incense-burner,  resting 
on  a  great  monolithic  slab,  stand  before  the  mas- 
sive, fortress-like  tower  at  the  front  of  the  tumulus 
of  actual  imperial  sepulture.  A  dark,  sloping  passage 
leads  into  this  tower,  as  to  the  tomb  of  so  many  Mo- 
gul rulers  in  India,  but  there  is  no  inlaid,  jeweled 
sarcophagus  there.  The  echoing  tunnel  turns  and 
leads  out  and  up  sloping  levels  to  a  broad  terrace 
on  which  the  tower  stands.  A  tall  marble  tablet,  rest- 
ing on  an  imperial  tortoise,  is  sheltered  in  the  great 
arch  of  the  tower,  and  tourists  of  all  luitions  liave 
left  their  names  in  this  last  antechamber  of  the  Em- 
peror—Chinese names  past  counting,  Japanese  names 
by  the  dozen,  many  Russian,  and,  most  conspicuous, 
the  autograph  of  an  English  diplomat  and  of  some 
sailors  from  an  American  man  of-war. 

"  Tell  him  I  want  one  of  the  tiles  that  have  fallen 
from  that  place  up  there,"  I  said,  pointing  to  a  great 
gap  in  the  weed-grown  eaves. 

The  guide  led  one  keeper  aside,  and  they  wrangled 
and  argued,  gesticulated,  stamped  their  feet,  and  laid 
hands  on  each  other's  shoulders  as  their  voices  rose. 

''  Tliat  gateman  one  ])ig  tliief.  He  Avanchee  fifty 
cents  one  piecee  yellow  tile."    And  the  hot  discussion 


THE   VALLEY   OF   THE   MING   TOMBS  255 

had  all  been  about  the  prices— not  the  struggle  of  an 
uneorrupted  conscience  against  temptation  by  tiaos. 
The  keeper  stood  for  his  extra  price  because  it  was 
getting  late  in  the  season  for  tourists,  and  some  one 
had  told  him  that  the  mandarins  were  going  to 
stop  the  foreigners  from  coming  there  any  more. 

''Whose  tomb  is  that  next  one,  over  there  among 
the  trees  ? "  I  asked. 

"  Chiaching,"  was  the  prompt  reply. 

"Whose  tomb  next  to  that  ?"  The  convoy  looked 
dumb.  "  What  emperor  is  buried  behind  that  second 
temple  there?"  I  repeated,  and  there  was  talking, 
talking,  talking,  a  harsh  gabble  of  consonants  and 
loud  inflections,  but  no  direct  answer  came. 

"What  for  that  lady  want  to  know?  What  for 
she  ask  about  other  tomb  ? "  queried  one  of  them,  sus- 
piciously. "No  foreigner  want  to  know  that.  No 
one  ask  that  question  before.  S'pose  my  no  sabe,  my 
lose  face." 

"  Which  one  of  these  thirteen  temples  is  Wanli's  ? " 
I  asked  my  own  minion,  as  he  made  tiffin  ready  on  a 
sunny  terrace. 

"  Wanli  ?  Wanli  ?  Chinese  gentleman  ?  My  no 
sabe,"  beamed  Buddha-Liu,  in  reply. 

"  Where  is  Yunglo's  wife's  tomb  ?  Where  are  Chi- 
nese empresses  buried  ? " 

"  No  sabo." 

"  How  many  of  these  other  tombs  shall  we  see  after 
tiffin  ? " 

"  No.  No  go  anywhere  now  but  Chang-ping-chou. 
Nobody  go  other  tomb— just  Yunglo  tomb." 

"Wlw?" 


256  CHINA:    THE   LONG-LIVED   EMPIRE 

**  No  sabe  other  tomb.  No  sabe  why.  Why  foi 
missis  wanchee  know  so  much  thing  ? " 

And  then  I  let  the  dead  Ming  sovereigns  go  their 
splendid  way,  satisfied  myself  to  go  the  cut-and-dried 
route  to  this  one  splendid  and  satisfying  sepuleher 
of  that  enlightened  one  who  rebuilt  and  beautified 
Peking.  He  must  himself  have  been  pleased  with 
this  series  of  red-walled,  yellow-tiled,  raarble-broidered 
halls,  with  the  magnificent  avenue  of  approach  which 
we  were  yet  to  see,  having  taken  the  sight  in  reverse 
order,  in  true  Chinese  rule  of  inversion. 

The  other  twelve  sepulchers  are  said  to  be  each  a 
companion-piece  or  copy  of  the  other,  and  none  as 
splendid  as  the  Yunglo  temples.  Some  of  the  Ming 
tombs  have  been  despoiled  to  beautify  the  tombs  of 
the  Manchu  dynasty,  seventy  miles  away  from  Peking 
in  another  direction.  The  admirable  Kienlung  is 
accused  of  this  sacrilege,  but  the  Manchu  sepulchers 
are  so  thoroughly  guarded  that  no  one  knows  how 
splendid  they  may  be.  Thirteen  was  an  ominous 
number  for  the  Mings,  for  when  thirteen  of  their 
line  had  been  interred  in  this  valley  of  tombs,  the 
dynasty  fell,  the  last  of  the  Mings  hanged  himself  to 
a  tree,  and  there  was  none  to  build  him  a  tomb  in  this 
valley.  Tlie  two  Ming  emperors  who  ruled  at  Nan- 
king are  buried  there,  and  those  tombs  were  models 
for  tliese  northern  sepulchers. 

Every  one  of  these  golden,  tip-tilted,  imperial  yel- 
low roofs  around  the  valley  is  sagging  to  decays 
grass,  weeds,  and  small  bushes  are  breaking  the  tiles 
apart,  and  tliey  full  like  golden  leaves.  Each  year  the 
ex(iuisitely    carved    white    marble    balustrades    lean 


CATCHING  SINGIXG  INSECTS. 


THE   VALLEY  OF   THE   MING   TOMBS  259 

away,  topple  to  a  fall,  and  it  was  surely  a  compassion- 
ate American  who  wanted  to  buy  and  take  away  the 
dragon-crusted  rail  and  posts  from  one  of  the  Yunglo 
terraces.  A  few  years  more  of  Manchu  neglect  and 
these  Ming  temples  will  be  as  the  Taipings  left  those 
at  Nanking,  and  it  is  a  place  to  ponder  on  the  little- 
ness of  greatness  and  the  brevity  of  all  things,  even 
in  the  long-lived  empire.  The  still,  mellow  autumn 
noon,  with  the  wind  sighing  softly  in  the  old,  old 
cedars,  could  dispose  one  to  more  reveries  if  the 
Ming  emperors  were  nearer  to  us,  if  any  one  of  them 
had  been  a  living  reality  to  even  medieval  European 
minds,  if  a  legend  or  historical  incident  from  one's 
school-books  in  any  way  identified  them  or  provoked 
associations.  The  detachment  is  too  extreme,  and  the 
mental  effort  required  is  too  great,  to  give  any  one  of 
these  Sons  of  Heaven  form  and  individuality.  Only 
by  their  porcelains,  their  blue  and  white,  their  egg-shell, 
their  soft  paste,  their  "five-color,"  and  their  bronzes 
does  the  Western  world  know  them  or  recall  the 
names  that  ran  contemporary  with  Henry  VIH  and 
Elizabeth,  with  Columbus,  Ferdinand,  and  Isabella,  the 
dynasty  ending  soon  after  the  Pilgrims  had  landed  at 
Plymouth  Rock. 

While  we  lounged  in  the  sunshine,  the  muleteers 
crept  cautiously  over  the  grass,  hunting  each  cricket 
or  insect  musician  that  set  up  its  little  pipe,  and  by 
the  time  we  left,  each  cricket-catcher  had  a  dozen  or 
more  russet  and  brown-black  little  fiddlers  tied  fast 
along  twigs,  and  was  gleeful  at  the  prospective  profits 
in  the  Peking  cricket-market. 

When  our  procession  had  gone  a  little  way  from  the 


260  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

gates,  two  keepers  emerged  from  the  grove  and  handed 
from  their  sleeves  all  the  yellow  tiles  I  had  wanted. 
"  Twenty  cents  one  piecee,"  said  the  boy,  with  such  a 
gleam  of  triumph  in  his  eye  that  there  must  then  have 
been  a  considerable  profit  in  the  transaction. 

The  day  had  grown  more  still  and  golden,  the  whole 
earth  and  air  "  sang "  in  the  mellow  sunshine,  and 
even  the  poor  ragged  hind  at  his  plow  stopped  to  wipe 
his  brow  and  gaze  upon  the  great  plain  that  spread 
away — white  hazes,  the  lakes  of  mirage  in  farthest 
distance,  and  Peking's  towers  glittering  and  flashing 
heliograph  signals  in  the  midst. 

The  stone  road  ended  in  grass-grown  ruts,  and 
twice  we  wound  about  to  cross  dry  gullies  where  stone 
bridges  stood  detached  in  the  chasm,  footwalks  and 
parapets  ending  in  air.  We  went  under  a  three- 
arched  pailow  and  down  that  strange  avenue  of  ani- 
mals, where  six  colossal  warriors  in  ornamental  dress 
stand  on  each  side,  and  gigantic  horses,  kilins,  ele- 
phants, camels,  unicorns,  and  lions  face  in  double 
pairs  for  a  half-mile  along  this  triumphant  way.  A 
pavilion  with  an  imperial  tablet  resting  on  the  back 
of  a  gigantic  tortoise,  more  bridges  in  ruin,  and  then 
rose  the  solid  tower  of  the  Red  Gateway,  where  the 
inner  park  wall  used  to  stand,  and  where  the  imperial 
trains  rested  in  great  barracks  long  gone  to  ruin. 
At  a  farther  distance,  the  great  five-arched  pailow 
stretclicd  its  marble  skeleton  of  honor  across  the  sky, 
the  largest  and  noblest  arch  or  gate  of  its  kind  in 
Chinn.  Tliis  quintuple  gate  stands  at  the  edge  of  a  first 
bench  or  tei-race  of  tlie  higli  plain,  and  when  one  ap- 
proaches the  Ming  tombs  properly  from  the  front. 


THE  VALLEY  OF   THE  MING   TOMBS  261 

instead  of  backward  as  the  Chinese  guides  prefer  to 
lead  one,  it  is  traced  like  a  gigantic  seal  character 
against  the  heavens.  It  marks  the  edge  of  the  impe- 
rial demesne  and  is  the  official  entrance  to  the  valley 
of  tombs.  One  of  Kienlung's  many  poems  is  cut  on 
its  central  tablet,  in  praise  of  the  dynasty  his  own 
ancestors  cast  out,  although  the  pailow  was  erected 
two  centuries  before  the  imperial  poet  thus  associated 
himself  with  the  Mings. 

We  crept  at  a  tortoise  pace  to  the  tall  gray  walls 
of  Chang-ping-chou,  the  "Jumping  Joe"  of  the  globe- 
trotter, and  wound  in  through  its  deep  gateway  and 
across  the  town  to  the  south  gate— a  quiet,  old  pro- 
vincial town,  with  deep  roadways,  high  sidewalks,  and 
blank  walls  to  the  street,  but  with  green  shade-trees 
giving  it  some  character.  It  seemed  just  the  retired 
old  place  in  which  to  grow  poets  and  great  scholars, 
and  where  philosophers  might  live  in  peace,  all  the 
town's  activity  and  excitement  centering  that  day  at 
a  chestnut  and  persimmon  market  outside  the  gates. 

We  returned  to  the  same  inn  at  Sha-ho  with  quite  a 
home-coming  sense ;  and-  after  chestnuts  and  tea,  and 
a  walk  to  the  ruin  of  the  beautiful  carved  bridge  be- 
yond the  town,  watched  there  the  sunset  across  the 
open  plain,  that  was  worthy  pageant  to  close  such  an 
autumn  day.  The  full  moon  rose  rapidly,  and,  in  its 
silver  light  and  against  the  lingering  red  band  above 
the  horizon,  there  moved  the  silent,  fascinating  cara- 
vans of  dreams.  Gaunt  silhouettes  of  camels  filed  on 
and  on,  each  one  tlie  twin  image  of  the  one  gone  be- 
fore, each  treading  the  same  measured  pace,  each 
footfall  as  silent,  each  scornful  lip  the  same.     Ragged 


262  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIEE 

paper  cylinders  of  lanterns  showed  a  feeble  orange 
glow  here  and  there  as  they  dangled  inefficiently 
from  the  packs,  and  a  rude  bell  clanged  from  the 
shaggy  neck  of  one  beast  in  fifty.  All  stepped  and 
kept  automatic  time  to  it.  Shove-shuff,  shove-sJmff, 
went  their  soft,  padded  feet,  as  they  walked  beside  us. 
More  and  more  caravans  came  by  as  it  grew  darker 
and  cooler— mysterious  automata  from  shadow-land, 
surely,  that  soon  disappeared  into  the  rim  of  frost 
haze  around  the  plain,  the  Ming-Mang  of  their  harsh 
bells  softening  musically  in  distance. 

While  we  dined  at  the  top  of  the  court,  with  the 
door  wide  open  to  the  moon-lighted  yard,  we  could 
look  over  into  the  restaurant  office,  where  the  lights 
flamed  on  the  dark  bodies  and  yellow  faces  of  mule- 
teers and  common  travelers.  We  could  just  discern 
shadowy  camel-trains  passing  in  the  street  beyond,  a 
slow,  methodical  progress  of  dark  shapes  for  hours, 
witli  rarely  the  clang  of  a  bell.  Through  pillow  and 
mattress  and  kang  came  the  strangest  sound-sensa- 
tions all  night,  the  beat  of  those  soft,  padded  feet 
sending  sound-waves  through  solid  earth,  stone,  and 
cement  that  the  air  Avould  not  carry.  Thnmble,  th  tonble, 
thnmhle,  thnmble,  went  the  continuous,  rhythmical  beat 
of  their  footfalls,  unearthly  sounds  that  rang  in  one's 
ears,  beat  on  one's  head  in  time  with  the  pulses— a 
sound  felt  rather  than  heard,  for  if  one  sat  up  and 
strained  tlie  ears  to  listen  there  was  only  a  far  clang- 
ing bell  to  be  heard.  This  wireless,  underground 
telephone  communication  was  so  distinct  and  so  in- 
sistent that  it  forced  itself  on  one's  attention,  excited 
and  kept  one  awake  more  than  loud  noises  could  have 


THE  VALLEY  OF  THE   MING  TOMBS  265 

done.  Our  donkeys  lifted  up  their  voices  one  by  one 
until  some  one  hit  them.  Then  they  sobbed  them- 
selves in  diminuendo  into  silence ;  but  the  mysterious 
thtimble,  thumble  of  the  camels'  muffled  tread  came  up 
through  the  kang  all  night — a  sound  of  witchery  and 
mystery.  One  felt  as  if  all  the  camels  of  Asia  were 
counterfiling  on  the  Peking  plain ;  as  if  all  Mongolia 
were  afoot;  as  if  the  whole  Russian  army  had  come 
down  on  that  moon-lighted  night— and  all  China  none 
the  wiser. 


XIX 

SUBURBAN  TEMPLES 

^E  followed  bypaths  and  cut  across  fields 
the  next  morning,  the  same  animated 
groups  in  the  harvest-fields,  by  thresh- 
ing-floors, and  in  the  village  markets, 
declaring  the  season's  abundant  crops, 
until  China  seemed  a  veritable  land  of  plenty,  over- 
flowing with  grain  and  fruits ;  yet  thousands  were 
then  facing  starvation  by  the  flooded  Tientsin  and 
Yellow  rivers.  A  glittering  object  at  the  back  of  a 
cart  crawling  northward  caught  the  eye  for  an  hour, 
and  days  afterward  we  identified  it  as  the  woven-wire 
mattress  of  an  American  tourist,  who,  having  seen 
one  kang  in  Peking,  hitched  his  wagon  to  the  patent 
bed  of  his  own  country  and  rested  luxuriously  every 
night  in  Chinese  inns. 

In  the  fourth  inner  court  of  Ta-chung-ssu,  the 
Temple  of  the  Great  Bell,  a  fine,  red-eaved,  hexagonal 
building  holds  that  world's  wonder,  the  greatest  feat  of 
artistic  bronze-casting  to  be  seen  even  in  China.  Ta- 
Chung,  or  Ta-Toong,  the  Great  Bell,  swings  down  to 
one's  level,  its  great  lip  is  pointed  and  recurved  like  a 

266 


SUBURBAN  TEMPLES  267 

flower-petal,  and  the  whole  surface,  inside  and  outside, 
is  covered  with  gracefully  modeled  characters.  Each 
square,  strongly  drawn  seal  character  is  a  half-inch 
long ;  each  one  of  the  eighty-four  thousand  characters 
is  as  true  and  clear-cut,  as  sharply  outlined,  as  if 
dashed  by  a  master  hand  with  a  brush  on  paper. 
The  whole  of  a  Buddhist  book  of  sutras  is  graven 
there  in  a  beautiful  raised  text  that  a  blind  scholar 
might  lovingly  read. 

This  gigantic  campanula's  cup  in  bronze  is  one  of 
Yunglo's  master  castings  of  the  year  1400,  and  differ- 
ent writers  give  different  measurements — fourteen, 
fifteen,  seventeen,  and  eighteen  feet  in  height,  but  all 
agreeing  that  it  is  twelve  feet  in  diameter  and  nine 
inches  thick  at  the  rim.  One  record  says  that  all  of 
Yunglo's  great  bells  weigh  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  pounds  each,  and  another  record  gives  this 
bell  a  weight  of  eighty-seven  thousand  pounds.  There 
is  a  companion  bell  in  the  palace  garden  at  Peking, 
another  in  the  big  city  Bell-tower,  and  a  twenty -two- 
ton  monster  which  Yunglo  left  behind  when  he 
moved  from  Nanking  to  the  northern  capital.  This 
big  bell  outside  Peking  is  said  to  be  the  largest  hanging 
bell  in  the  world.  The  big  bell  in  the  Kremlin  at 
Moscow  is  greater  in  circumference  and  thicker  at 
the  rim,  but  that  plain,  graceless,  dumpy  lump  of 
bell-metal  with  a  broken  edge  is  not  to  be  compared 
with  this  beautiful  inverted  chalice,  which  from  lip  to 
loop  is  a  mass  of  finest  relief-work,  and  bell-making 
and  bronze-casting  have  never  gone,  cannot  go,  be- 
yond this  masterpiece.  The  big  bell  at  Mandalay  is 
twelve  feet  high,  sixteen  feet  in  diameter,  and  from 


268  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

six  to  twelve  inclies  thick,  and  the  big  bell  of  the 
Chioin  temple  in  Kioto,  best  known  of  big  bells  in 
the  Far  East,  is  but  ten  feet  high,  nine  feet  in  diameter, 
and  nine  and  a  half  inches  thick.  Chioin's  sweet- 
sounding  monster  is  only  a  plain  bronze  cylinder  com- 
pared with  this  fretted  flower-cup,  but  one  longs  to 
hear  Yunglo's  bell  speak  before  he  dethrones  Chioin's 
enchanter.  The  bell  is  rung  only  at  the  annual  festi- 
val or  when  the  Emperor  commands  his  representative 
to  pray  for  rain,  to  call  upon  Buddha  and  all  the  bo- 
dhisattvas  for  aid,  and  then  its  voice  is  said  to  be  heard 
all  over  the  city  and  the  Peking  plain.  Eight  men 
were  killed  at  the  casting,  and  their  spirits,  still  im- 
prisoned in  the  metal,  may  be  heard  in  the  last  vibra- 
tions. A  small  hole  at  the  top  of  the  bell  prevents 
the  sound-waves  from  bursting  the  cup  when  the  bell 
is  struck  too  hard  or  the  strokes  are  too  near  together, 
and  hawk-eyed  priests  showed  us  how  to  throw  cash 
through  that  needle's  eye  and  secure  good  luck  and 
good  crops  for  the  year— and  when  a  shot  missed  the 
bell's  eye  it  went  equally  to  the  good  of  the  temple 
treasury. 

All  the  smaller  ornaments  and  images,  the  desira- 
ble temple  properties,  had  gone  to  the  curio-market, 
and  only  the  life-size  deities,  the  gilded  thrones  and 
clumsy  fragments  of  the  sacred  mise  en  scene,  re- 
mained. A  semicircle  of  wolfish  priests  stared  stonily 
at  us  as  we  tiffined  in  the  outer  court,  and  wolfish 
dogs  did  as  their  masters.  The  dogs  slunk  after  and 
leaped  in  a  snapping,  yelping  circle  around  one  stran- 
ger who  ventured  to  the  next  court  alone,  and  the 
priests  only  turned  apathetic  looks  that  way,  indiffer- 


SUBURBAN  TEMPLES  269 

ent  whether  the  dogs  ate  the  foreigner  or  not.  It 
was  all  in  a  day  with  them — other  foreigners  had  been 
there  before,  other  foreigners  would  come  again. 

We  went  across  stubble,  sweet-potato  and  peanut 
fields  to  the  set  of  cart-tracks  converging  toward 
the  Anting  Gate,  and  reached  the  Yellow  Temple. 
A  lama  sentry  had  given  the  alarm,  and  at  the  end 
of  a  long  stone  passage  there  was  wrangling  and 
snarling  through  the  crevice  of  a  gate  until  we  paid 
the  dear  admission  fee  and  went  in,  tagged  by  a 
crowd  of  filthy  loafers  whom  the  lamas  would  not, 
dared  not,  exclude.  We  saw  but  a  small  corner  of  this 
vast  establishment,  which  has  been  a  headquarters  of 
Buddhism  since  its  foundation  in  Kanghsi's  time, 
the  haven  of  visiting  lamas,  and  place  of  pious 
pilgrimage  for  Mongols  and  Tibetans  coming  to 
Peking.  In  the  first  shaded  court  stands  the  beau- 
tiful marble  dagoba  erected  to  the  memory  of  the 
Tibetan  tesho-lama,  uncle  of  the  dalai-lama  and  sec- 
ond only  to  him  in  that  hierarchy,  who  came  to 
visit  the  Emperor  Kienlung  in  1780,  and  died  of 
smallpox  after  a  few  weeks'  stay.  After  Kanghsi, 
Kienlung,  ''  the  Magnificent,  Great  Ruler  of  Asia," 
has  perhaps  more  of  personal  identity  to  us  than 
other  occupants  of  the  dragon  throne.  The  Jesuits 
have  written  fulh'^  of  him  and  his  court  at  Jehol, 
where  Lord  Macartney  also  visited  him,  and  George 
Staunton  described  the  embassy's  reception.  Kien- 
lung sent  an  expedition  to  Tibet  and  across  the 
Himalayas  into  India  to  punish  the  Goorkhas  for  in- 
vading Tibet,  and  the  barriers  he  then  established 
for  the  lama's  land  have  preserved  it  as  a  forbidden 


270  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

country.  Devout  Buddhist  as  he  was,  gossip  said 
that  Kienhiiig  wearied  and  rebelled  against  prostrat- 
ing his  imperial  person  and  worshiping  this  "  Gem 
of  Learning,"  and  deliberately  poisoned  his  superior 
guest.  Turnei*'s  "  Embassy  to  Tibet "  tells  of  this 
banian  bogdo  and  his  fortress  of  a  lamasery  at  De- 
garchi,  and  of  the  erection  of  this  memorial  dagoba 
by  his  pious  host.  The  lama's  body  was  sent  to 
Lhasa  in  a  golden  coffin,  and  his  infected  garments 
were  incased  in  another  precious  casket  and  depos- 
ited under  the  dagoba  at  the  Yellow  Temple.  The 
pinnacled  monument  of  white  marble,  with  its  four 
attendant  pagodas  and  the  fretted  white  pailow,  are 
raised  on  a  stone-and-marble  terrace,  and  from  its 
wave-patterned  base  to  the  gilded  tee  thirty  feet  in 
air,  it  is  as  fair  and  perfect  as  when  finished,  chis- 
eled all  over  with  reliefs  as  fine  and  white  as  frost 
traceries.  There  are  bands  of  symbols,  diaper-work, 
and  inscriptions,  eight  panel  scenes  from  the  life  of 
the  great  lama,  and  besides  the  Buddhist  trinity  in  the 
high  medallion,  Kwanyin  and  the  company  of  bo- 
dhisattvas  in  the  cloud-land  of  Nirvana  are  seated  on 
its  successive  stories.  Each  tiny  figure  is  as  exqui- 
sitely finished  as  an  ivory  carving,  and  the  lines  of 
floral  symbols,  the  bands  of  svastikas  and  ])henixes, 
medallions  and  geometrical  designs,  make  it  a  very 
text-book  and  grammar  of  Chinese  and  Buddhist 
ornament.  Its  perfect  whole  shows  what  we  know 
by  the  fragments  rescued  from  Amrawati  and  Gand- 
liara ;  and  the  fine  carvings,  the  snowy  relief  of  white 
on  white,  recall  Mogul  tombs  and  palaces  at  Agra 
and  Delhi.     It  is  an  object  so  exquisite  and  so  per- 


SUBUEBAN  TEMPLES  271 

feet  that  one  feels  concern  at  its  being  left  in  the 
open  air,  that  it  is  not  kept  under  roof  or  treasured 
under  glass  in  some  great  Western  museum.  It  jars 
on  one,  too,  to  see  this  matchless  example  of  pure 
Buddhist  art  tagged  over  with  scraps  of  cloth  and 
paper,  to  find  a  clumsy,  modern  bronze  incense-burner 
before  it,  and  a  grimy  glass  box  of  artificial  flow- 
ers set  as  an  offering  before  this  superb  reliquary; 
and  the  jeers  and  jabber,  the  insolent  elbowing  of 
the  greasy  lamas  and  their  apish  neighbors,  grate  on 
one  just  a  little  more. 

We  were  shown  into  one  great  hall  where  the  three 
conventional  images  of  Chinese  Buddhist  altars  smile 
and  brood  serene,  with  their  attendant  lohaus  or  ar- 
hats  at  either  side— the  Buddhist  trinity  of  Fo,  Fa, 
and  Seng,  or  Buddha,  the  Law,  and  the  Priests ;  the 
Past,  the  Present,  and  Maitreya,  the  Future  Buddha, 
or  ''  Buddha  and  his  wives,"  as  this  temple  trinity 
was  once  described  by  an  English  officer  who  wrote  a 
book  about  his  life  in  China.  The  clustering  roofs 
and  the  two  tall  flagsta^ffs  of  honor  at  the  distant 
south  gate  tell  how  vast  the  yellow  establishment  is ; 
but  we  saw  nothing  more  of  its  halls  of  worship  or 
temple  treasures,  and  reasonable  offers  could  not  get 
us  a  sight  of  the  '^  traveler's  palace,"  whose  richly 
decorated  rooms  were  the  headquarters  of  Sir  Hope 
Grant  in  1860.  Nor  would  they  show  the  bronze- 
foundry  where  bells,  images,  temple  vessels,  and  orna- 
ments are  made  for  the  Buddhists  of  Mongolia  and 
Tibet.  Only  a  few  years  since,  the  YelloAv  Temple 
foundry  cast  and  shipped  away  an  image  of  Buddha 
over  twenty  feet  high,  for  which  a  temple  had  been 


272  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

erected  on  the  Lhasa  road— the  faith  still  real  and 
living  in  Mongolia  and  Tibet,  however  apathetic  and 
unbelieving  degenerate  China  may  have  become.  The 
copper  forms  which  are  the  base  of  the  brilliant  cloi- 
sonne and  painted  enamels  made  in  Peking  are  fur- 
nished from  this  same  foundry,  and  they  follow  good 
old  conventional  forms.  The  best  of  the  old  enamels 
date  from  the  early  Ming  period,  the  golden  age  of 
Yunglo ;  but  there  was  a  revival  in  Kienlung's  time, 
and  his  Jesuit  artists  furnished  medallion  and  other 
designs  for  painted  enamels  without  cloisons,  which 
resemble  the  old  Limoges  work.  As  in  the  porce- 
lain decorations  which  they  also  inspired,  the  Jesuit 
or  "  missionary  colors  "  distinctly  mark  the  enamels 
of  this  period;  and  certain  intense  pinks  and  the 
paler  rose  du  Barry,  the  rose-of-gold  hues  that  are  so 
unmistakable,  mark  the  exquisite  little  pieces  of  this 
later  period. 

All  over  the  Peking  plain  are  temples  and  monas- 
teries whose  revenues  have  failed,  whose  worshipers 
have  fallen  away,  and  in  whose  solitude  a  few  infirm, 
degenerate  priests  manage  to  exist.  There  is  the  Wo- 
fu-ssu,  the  Temple  of  the  Sleeping  Buddha,  where 
a  recumbent  image  fifty  feet  in  length  dreams  in  Nir- 
vana, as  in  the  shrines  and  cave  temples  of  Ceylon ; 
and  all  along  the  line  of  the  hills  are  sacred  groves 
whose  temples  are  half  forgotten.  Any  other  govern- 
ment and  people  would  proudly  preserve  these  monu- 
ments of  their  nobler  past,  but  the  Cliinese  reverence 
for  antiquity  is  just  as  false  and  artificial  as  some 
others  of  their  great  virtues  when  reduced  to  the  prac- 
tical test.     An  architectural  treasure  of  the  great  cen- 


SUBUEBAN  TEMPLES  273 

tunes  of  Buddhism  is  the  Pi-yun-ssu,  or  Azure  Cloud 
Monastery,  a  religious  foundation  of  Kienlung's  time, 
whose  marble  pailows,  dagobas,  pagodas,  and  temples 
are  in  perfect  condition,  splendid  specimens  of  Bud- 
dhist architecture  and  ornament.  There  the  great 
Kienlung  himself  sits  among  the  arhats,  or  expectant 
bodhisattvas,  in  the  Hall  of  Five  Hundred  Genii,  as 
he  sits  with  those  other  gilded  companies  of  saints  by 
brevet  at  Hangchow  and  Canton.  Other  halls  with 
their  thousands  of  gilded  images  gave  the  Azure  Cloud 
unique  attractions  until,  with  the  decay  of  all  things, 
material  and  spiritual,  this  great  treasury  of  religious 
art  began  to  respond  to  the  market  demand  for  ob- 
jects of  vertu,  until  the  gods  of  the  Azure  Cloud  have 
crossed  the  seas  and  gone  everywhere  in  the  Western 
world. 

Once,  in  going  out  of  the  city  to  the  western 
suburbs,  there  w^as  unusual  stir  and  motion  in  the 
city  streets  near  the  gates,  but  nothing  could  induce 
boy  or  carter  to  inquire  if  an  imperial  procession 
was  to  pass  that  way.  "  S'pose  I  speakee  him  what 
time  Emperor  go  walkee,  my  catchee  big  bobbery. 
Soldier  say,  'Hai  !  what  for  you  wanchee  knowf 
You  come  yamun  side.'  And  then  he  lock  me  in ; 
bamboo  me ;  maybe  kill " ;  and  the  coward  grew  so 
pale  and  ill  at  ease  that  I  gave  up  insisting  and  went 
on  outside  for  a  day  of  suburban  temples.  Outside  the 
walls  we  met  red-satin-clad  bearers  bringing  in  empty 
yellow  chairs  shrouded  in  yellow  cloths,  and  carts  as 
carefully  covered  followed.  Late  in  the  afternoon 
we  found  the  roadside  from  Wu-ta-ssu  into  the  north- 
west gate  gay  with  holiday  crowds,  Manchu  women 


274  CHINA:   THE  L0NG-LI\T:D  EMPIRE 

and  children  in  carts  and  litters  and  on  foot,  all 
arrayed  in  their  most  brilliant  clothes.  Outside  the 
walls  they  could  view- the  imperial  train  from  a  respect- 
ful distance,  and  it  had  been  a  regular  Manchu  holi- 
day for  crowds  that  watched  the  modest  retinue  of  the 
then  retired  Empress  Dowager  returning  to  E-ho  Park 
after  a  two  days'  visit  to  the  city  palace.  This  was  the 
only  occasion  on  which  we  saw  anything  like  idle 
pleasuring,  or  families  off  for  a  country  jaunt.  There 
were  never  pilgrims  nor  holiday  companies  encoun- 
tered at  the  temples  in  the  suburbs,  and  the  charms 
of  country  life  do  not  seem  to  be  envied  by  the  mil- 
lion and  a  third  dwellers  in  the  two  great  walled 
cities.  The  love  of  nature  and  landscape  charms 
which  the  Buddhist  religion  fostered  and  encouraged, 
and  which  is  so  pronounced  in  the  ancient  classic 
poetry,  seems  to  have  died  out  Avith  the  great  faith 
itself,  one  more  evidence  of  present  decadence. 


XX 

TO   SHANGHAI 

^HEN  one  has  endured  much  of  prim- 
itive travel  in  China,  the  railway  seems 
surely  to  be  inventive  genius's  greatest 
gift  to  man.  Having  delayed  too  long 
in  Peking,  winter  came  in  one  Novem- 
ber night,  succeeding  a  dull,  hazy  sunset  that  her- 
alded a  dust-storm.  It  was  a  baby  blizzard  in  a 
way,  with  dust  instead  of  dry  snow  to  smother  and 
blind  one,  and  how  our  chair-bearers  got  to  Tung- 
chow  through  that  featureless,  brown  world  we 
never  knew,  for  we  could  not  see.  Gusts  of  icy 
wind  made  the  sedans  sway  and  the  bearers  stagger, 
and  dust  penetrated  curtains  and  wraps  and  veils 
until  all  were  of  one  color,  when  the  procession  filed  out 
on  the  broad  river-bank  at  Tungchow,  deserted  of 
its  crowds  and  caravans,  while  the  icy  wind  from  the 
desert  shrieked  across  it  and  whirled  its  surface  in 
air.  With  every  crevice  and  knot-hole  of  the  boats 
pasted  up,  the  dust  had  insinuated  itself  everywhere, 
and  although  the  servants  had  spent  the  day  clear- 
ing awa}^  the  accumulations,  all  food  was  as  Dead 
Sea  apples. 

275 


27G  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

Boats  were  tied  fast  ten  and  twenty  rows  deep,  and 
all  activity  was  suspended  on  account  of  the  weather. 
At  sunset,  when  the  wind  went  down  and  dust-clouds 
circled  slowly,  the  envoy's  ensign  was  hoisted  on  the 
scattered  boats  of  the  fleet,  and  by  the  most  ingenious 
poling  and  ■wriggling  they  were  extricated  from  the 
jam  and  strung  out  in  line  in  the  open  river.  For 
the  next  cold,  bleak  day  we  hurried  down-stream  with 
current  and  sail,  and  at  the  second  sunrise  the  vice- 
roy's steam-launch  found  us,  hoisted  the  foreign  flag, 
and  sped  shrieking  to  Tientsin  with  the  fleet  in  tow — 
a  certain  triumphant  convention  in  the  envoy's  keep- 
ing,- a  last  victory  of  his  nation  in  China,  and  cause 
for  this  courtesy.  Cargo-boats  cleared  away  promptly 
without  any  hails  or  back  talk  from  their  skippers  or 
trackers ;  for  some  half -submerged  boats  loaded  with 
brick-tea,  run  down  by  the  yamun  launch  the  night 
before,  pointed  the  usual  moral  against  boatmen  dis- 
puting right  of  way  with  the  viceroy's  august  fire-boat. 

One  gets  idea  of  the  volume  of  foreign  trade  in 
China  as  he  watches  ocean-going  steamers  clear  away 
by  twos  and  threes  daily  from  Tientsin  for  Shanghai, 
and  vice  versa;  and  Avith  the  opening  of  the  Pei-ho 
River  in  spring,  twenty  ships  have  left  Shanghai  in 
one  day,  bound  for  the  northern  port.  With  winter 
coming  on,  Chefoo,  the  one  seaside  summer  resort  of 
all  China  before  Peitaho  was  known,  was  a  deserted, 
wind-swept  settlement,  coolies  on  the  foreshore,  and 
the  wind-gages  and  signal-flags  on  the  top  of  the 
hill  wliore  tlie  consuls  live,  the  only  moving  things  in 
sight.  The  summer  liotels  on  the  farther  bathing- 
beach  were  closed,  and  a  few  men-of-war  lay  at  the 


TO  SHANGHAI  277 

far  naval  anchorage.  Despite  the  opening  of  Kiao- 
ehau,  on  the  east  coast  of  the  province,  Chefoo  has 
not  lost  its  trade,  and  straw  braid  and  bean-cake,  raw 
silks  and  pongees,  continue  to  pour  in  from  the  back 
country.  Bales  of  straw  braid  the  size  of  haystacks, 
done  up  loosely  in  matting,  threatened  to  fall  apart 
as  they  were  hoisted  on  board.  "  All  the  braid  has 
to  be  repacked  in  Shanghai,"  said  one  depressed 
shipper  of  such  cargo.  "  In  all  these  years  we  have 
not  been  able  to  induce  them  to  deliver  us  anything 
but  these  huge,  untidy  bundles."  When  he  was  asked 
why  the  ship  coaled  at  Chefoo  instead  of  at  Tongku, 
the  port  of  the  Chihli  coal-mines,  he  wearily  replied : 
'^We  get  the  Japanese  coal  here  cheaper  than  the 
Kaiping  or  Tongshan  coal  at  their  own  docks  at 
Tongku.  They  always  cheat  in  the  weight  and 
quality  of  Chinese  coal." 

The  sight  of  the  port,  the  sign-board  and  label  of 
Chinese  official  intelligence,  a  handwriting  on  the 
wall  that  is  the  last  brand  of  imbecility,  is  "the  great 
wall  of  Chefoo"— a  twelve-foot  construction  franti- 
cally built  from  sea-beach  to  hilltops  east  of  the  city 
to  keep  out  the  Japanese  in  1894.  With  a  harbor 
full  of  neutral  men-of-war  coming  and  going,  with 
an  army-corps  landed,  great  guns  thundering  at 
Wei-hai-wei,  forty  miles  down  the  coast,  and  Port 
Arthur,  a  hundred  miles  across  the  gulf,  already 
fallen,  mandarin  minds  could  just  rise  to  this  prehis- 
toric mode  of  defense— a  trifling  bit  of  masonry  that 
troops  could  surmount  at  parade  in  unbroken  com- 
panies, and  naval  guns  in  the  harbor  could  breach  by 
the  furlong.     This  Chefoo  wall  of  a.d.  1894  does  not 


278  CHINA:  THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

argue  much  for  Chinese  intelligence.  Fifteen  years 
ago,  Chefoo  was  renowned  for  its  fruits,  among  them 
being  apricots  that  could  have  won  first  prizes  at 
California  fairs.  These  resulted  from  the  efforts  of 
an  American  missionary  who  brought  out  seeds  and 
cuttings  and  taught  the  farmers  how  to  graft  and 
improve  the  quality  of  their  fruit.  When  that  kind 
teacher  left,  the  fruit-growers  ceased  their  efforts,  and 
things  drifted  back  to  their  original  condition.  It  was 
not  "  old  custom  "  to  graft  and  fuss  with  the  trees  in 
that  way. 

One  gets  a  glimpse  of  ships  and  flags  and  forts  as 
he  passes  the  narrow  entrance  of  the  bay  of  Wei-hai- 
wei,  where  great  deeds  were  done  in  the  bitter  winter 
of  1894-95,  and  the  brave  Admiral  Ting,  almost  the 
one  Chinese  hero  of  the  war,  took  his  own  life  when 
aU  was  lost.  Under  British  lease,  Wei-hai-wei  has 
been  rebuilt  and  improved,  and  in  summer  is  head- 
quarters and  rendezvous  for  the  British  Asiatic  fleet, 
and  general  sanatorium  for  the  fleet  and  the  Hongkong 
garrison. 

One  sees  nothing  of  Kiao-chau  after  rounding  that 
dread  promontory  of  Shantung,  where  the  German 
gunboat  litis  was  so  tragically  lost,  and  until  its  new 
tenants  have  carried  out  their  plan  of  making  it  a 
"  German  Hongkong,"  it  will  be  long  before  Kiao- 
chau  comes  Avithin  the  ordinary  traveler's  ken.  When 
it  has  passed  this  first  discouraging,  sickly  stage  of 
its  beginning,  when  trade  has  come  and  railways  are 
built  inland,  many  of  the  interesting  places  in  Shan- 
tung will  ])e('onie  accessible.  The  birthplace  and  the 
tomb  of  Confucius  are  in  this  province,  and  the  res- 


TO  SHANGHAI  279 

idence  of  his  seventy-sixth  direct  male  descendant,  ^ 
the  ever-sacred  Duke  Kung,  whom  General  Wilson  and 
several  foreign  travelers  have  visited. /The  great  sacred 
White  Mountain  of  pilgrimage  offers  a  picturesque 
excursion,  but  the  Shantung  heart  is  so  hardened  to 
any  and  every  foreigner  that  a  generation  must  pass 
before  there  is  even  chill  welcome.  Only  unrestricted 
foreign  control  of  the  province  and  the  continued 
efforts  of  foreign  engineers  with  great  financial  re- 
sources can  ever  restrain  the  unmanageable  Yellow 
River, "  China's  Sorrow,"  which  annually  overflows  its 
banks  and  drives  thousands  of  people  from  their 
homes,  which  has  had  two  outlets  to  the  Yellow  Sea, 
another  on  the  Gulf  of  Pechili,  and  for  a  time  poured 
through  the  bed  of  the  Pei-ho  or  Tientsin  River. 
There  are  embankments  of  the  last  century  that  rise 
and  reach  like  ranges  of  hills  across  Shantung,  but 
Chinese  destructiveness  and  stupidity  have  even  worn 
and  cut  through  them  with  cart-roads,  and  when  the 
great  floods  come  the  gaps  are  feebly  stopped  with 
millet-stalks,  and  the  weary  old  Li  Hung  Chang  is  the 
engineer  sent  to  inspect  them !  Any  government, 
any  other  despotism,  any  usurpation  would  be  better 
for  China  than  the  one  from  which  it  now  suffers,  and 
if  German  militarism  can  subdue,  train,  and  regener- 
ate the  people  of  Shantung,  and  German  engineering 
curb  and  confine  the  Yellow  River,  German  protection 
and  absorption  of  this  province  will  be  for  Shantung's 
and  the  world's  advantage. 

Shanghai,  while  not  a  place  of  tourist  attractions, 
is  one  of  the  greatest  surprises  to  the  newcomer  in 
the  East.     At  the  Yangtsze's  mouth,  steamers  move 

15 


280  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

across  a  glaring  expanse  of  yellow-brown  mud,  the 
Wusung  adds  another  turbid  flood,  and  low-lying 
mud  shores  give  poor  promise  of  the  land  beyond. 
Sixteen  miles  below  Shanghai  large  and  heavily  laden 
mail-steamers  anchor  at  the  Wusung  bar,  lighter 
their  cargoes,  and  send  their  passengers  up  by  tender. 
This  "  Heaven-sent  Barrier"  was  made  more  effectual 
during  the  French  war  of  1884  by  drivdng  piles  and 
sinking  junks  across  the  narrow  channel,  w^hile  its 
protector,  the  Celestial  gunboat,  modestly  named 
''  The  Terror  of  "Western  Nations,"  sailed  away  to 
farther,  safer,  inland  reaches.  During  the  Japanese 
war,  England  warned  Japan  away  from  Shanghai 
and  stationed  a  fleet  at  the  mouth  of  the  Yangtsze. 
When  the  Japanese  declared  Shanghai  outside  the 
sphere  of  military  intentions,  the  foreign  community 
recognized  this  exemption  by  a  total  disregard  of  the 
laws  of  neutrality.  Shanghai  was  recruiting-station 
and  a  base  of  supplies  for  the  Chinese  army,  the 
neutral  flag  covering  every  munition  and  contraband 
article.  Every  foreign  resident  loudly  prophesied 
the  certain  victory  of  the  Chinese  and  complete  anni- 
hilation of  their  opponents.  They  had  lived  in  China 
and  knew  the  people,  they  said.  After  exasperating 
the  Japanese  in  countless  ways,  England  as  coolly 
left  China  to  her  fate  at  the  close  of  the  war,  and 
from  that  period  of  vacillation  and  inaction  and  ap- 
parent unfriendliness  to  both  nations  date  the  seri- 
ous attacks  upon  England's  supreme  influence  and 
prestige  in  the  Far  East. 

The  first  railway  in  China  was  built  from  Wusung 
to  Shanghai  in  187G,  and  was  enthusiastically  patro- 


TO  SHANGHAI  281 

nized  by  the  Chinese.  After  an  accident  and  riots, 
both  instituted  by  the  literati,  it  was  bought  by  the 
Chinese,  who  tore  up  the  rails  and  threw  them  in 
the  river,  and  sent  the  locomotives  to  Formosa,  where 
they  rusted  on  the  beach.  The  railway  was  rebuilt 
in  1898,  many  Chinese  buying  shares,  and  their  peo- 
ple now  crowd  the  cars ;  but  in  the  main,  travelers 
prefer  to  remain  with  their  belongings  on  the  tender 
until  they  are  landed  in  the  heart  of  Shanghai. 

The  river-banks,  with  their  villages  and  fields  of 
graves,  grow  busier  as  one  ascends,  the  stream  be- 
comes crowded  with  anchored  ships,  and  shipyard 
hammering  and  the  noises  of  industry  fill  the  air. 
Factories,  cotton-mills,  and  filatures  line  the  shore, 
and  the  pervading  hum  and  roar  of  progress  and  mod- 
ern industries  oppress  the  ear  until  one  can  scarcely 
credit  that  this  rushing,  hustling,  feverjshly  busy 
place  is  in  Asia  at  all.  But  the  true  flavor  of  China, 
that  heavy,  half -sickening  smell  of  bean-oil,  of  ineense- 
and  opium-smoke,  and  of  filthy  human  beings,  per- 
vades the  air  and  dispels  any  illusions. 

After  the  wharves  there  follows  the  fine  Japanese 
consulate  with  its  garden  walls,  and  then  the  German 
consulate  shows  its  flag  from  a  splendid  pile  of  build- 
ings on  the  river-front  of  the  American  Settlement. 
The  British  consulate  is  in  a  great  park  adjoining 
the  Public  Gardens  in  the  British  Settlement,  and  the 
American  consulate  occupies  the  upper  floors  of  a 
business  block  in  the  side  street  of  the  British  Settle- 
ment—ousted from  the  suitable  compound  it  once 
occupied  in  the  American  Settlement,  when  the  land- 
lord raised  the  rent.    A  rural  Missouri  congressman,  as 


282  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

well  informed  on  Shanghai,  or  European  life  and  con- 
ditions in  the  East,  as  a  Shanghai  comprador  might 
be  concerning  Missouri  facts,  ran  his  pencil  through 
the  item  in  consular  appropriations,  and  the  Ameri- 
can flag  was  hauled  down  and  raised  over  cheaper 
quarters  outside  the  American  Settlement. 

Shanghai,  as  the  largest  foreign  settlement  in  the 
East,  with  a  population  of  2002  British,  357  Americans, 
and  2433  other  Europeans,  and  a  foreign  import  and 
export  trade  of  forty  million  pounds  sterling  a  year, 
has  a  fixed  importance,  a  character  and  consequence, 
traditions  and  customs  all  its  own.  Half  the  foreign 
trade  of  China  goes  up  and  down  the  Wusung  River, 
and  the  city's  interests  are  all  commercial,  material, 
of  the  moment.  Great  fortunes  are  not  made  with 
the  dazzling  swiftness  they  were  "  before  the  cable  " 
and  "  before  Suez,"  but  Shanghai  is  a  home  of  Eastern 
luxury  at  least,  and  Shanghai  society,  taken  too  seri- 
ously by  those  who  constitute  it  to  be  treated  lightly 
in  any  by-chapter,  is  busy,  brilliant,  extravagant,  and 
all-absorbing  to  its  votaries,  and  is  keyed  to  the  pitch 
and  tone  and  time  of  the  social  centers  of  the  great- 
est velocity  in  the  Western  world.  The  tourist  with- 
out entree  to  its  hospitable  circles  finds  fcAv  attractions 
or  ''sights"  to  entertain  him  in  Shanghai,  and  the 
want  of  hotel  accommodations  speeds  the  pleasure- 
traveler  on  to  Hongkong  or  Japan,  so  that  Shanghai 
is,  in  a  sense,  almost  off  the  tourist's  grand  route. 

There  has  been  a  city  there  since  Chinese  time 
was  recorded,  but  there  is  nothing  of  scenery  or  land- 
scape in  all  the  neighborhood,  the  nearest  hills, 
barely  hillocks,  lying  thirty  miles  away.     One  drives 


TO   SHANGHAI  285 

out  the  Bubbling  Well  Road,  past  miles  of  villas,  and 
then  past  miles  of  dwarf  cotton-fields  dotted  with  an- 
cestral graves,  to  the  American  Episcopal  College  of 
St.  John ;  and  one  may  drive  to  the  Point,  and  to 
the  French  Jesuit  College  at  Sicawei,  and  enjoy  just 
the  same  rural  prospects  of  depressing  monotony. 
Shanghai  is  the  '*  model  settlement,"  th«  metropolis 
and  emporium  of  the  Far  East.  The  original  British 
and  American  concessions,  lying  side  by  side  along 
the  river-front,  are  now  one  international  settlement, 
under  the  municipal  control  of  a  board  of  foreign 
consuls  and  residents.  The  original  French  conces- 
sion maintains  its  separate  municipal  government,  and 
its  three  hundred  and  eighty-one  French  citizens  are 
unwilling  to  sink  themselves  in  the  greater  municipal- 
ity. In  their  quarter  are  qnais  and  rues,  and  each 
street-corner  has  the  blue-and- white  signs  of  Paris ; 
but  through  its  streets  stream  a  motley  crowd  of  Chi- 
nese, since  it  directly  adjoins  the  native  city.  All  three 
foreign  concessions  were  originally  intended  for  exclu- 
sive foreign  residence  ;  but  the  Chinese,  fleeing  there 
for  refuge  by  tens  of  thousands  during  the  Taiping 
rebellion,  discovered  the  advantages  of  foreign  rule, 
and  have  since  invaded  every  part  of  the  settle- 
ments. They  numbered  two  hundred  and  ninety- 
three  thousand  in  1895,  all  appreciating  their  immu- 
nity from  mandarin  extortions,  amenable  for  their 
offenses  to  the  Mixed  Court,  where  consular  officers 
sitting  with  a  Chinese  magistrate  deal  with  Chi- 
nese delinquents.  The  space,  light,  and  air,  the  clean- 
liness of  those  orderly  streets,  with  their  gas  and 
electricity,  water-supply  and  sewer  system,  do  not  so 


286  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

greatly  appeal  to  them,  nor  move  them  to  better 
ways.  They  swarm  and  hive  in  the  houses,  overflow 
the  doors  and  windows,  and  are  Chinese  to  the  last 
word. 

Shanghai  settlement  is  the  refuge  and  headquar- 
ters for  all  the  Chinese  progressives  and  reformers. 
There  they  print  their  audacious  newspapers  and 
magazines  that  tax  the  Empress  Dowager,  the  Man- 
chus,  and  the  literati  with  their  malfeasances  in  plain 
terms,  and  in  political  vituperation  out-yellow  all  the 
yellow  journals  of  America.  Rich  and  rascally  Chinese 
from  the  farthest  interior  long  to  come  and  do  come 
to  Shanghai  to  enjoy  their  wealth  in  safety,  or  spend  it 
in  reckless  dissipation,  as  the  miners  in  Argonaut 
times  went  "  down  to  the  bay  "  and  flung  away  their 
sudden  fortunes  at  San  Francisco.  At  the  time  of 
the  Japanese  war,  there  was  an  influx  of  rich  and  offi- 
cial Chinese  to  the  settlement,  anxious  to  safeguard 
their  families  and  fortunes.  Real  estate  rose  enor- 
mously in  value,  thousands  of  houses  have  been  built 
each  year  since  the  war  without  meeting  the  demand, 
and  villas  on  Bubbling  Well  Road  in  which  foreign 
families  of  three  souls  at  most  were  crowded  now 
shelter  single  Chinese  families  of  eighteen  or  eighty 
"  mouths."  The  settlement  numbers  scores  of  re- 
tired tao-tais  and  magistrates  settled  there  with  their 
families  and  ill-gotten  gains  in  prosperous  retirement. 
Where  fashion  drives,  there  "  Chineses  drive,"  and 
the  Bubbling  Well  Road,  once  the  resort  of  the  high 
cart  and  the  closed  brougham  of  British  good  form 
and  high  life,  now  rattles  with  anything  that  can  go 
on   wheels   and   be   crowded   with   gay   and   gilded 


TO  SHANGHAI  287 

"young  China,"  caUow  sinners  and  mature  scoun- 
drels in  splendid  satins,  all  smoking  large  cigars,  who 
have  adopted  and  adapted  all  Western  vices  and 
modes  of  dissipation.  They  have  their  theaters  and 
restaurants  and  gambling-houses,  of  course,  and,  in 
fine  travesty  of  the  foreign  community,  their  '^  coun- 
try clubs"  and  tea-gardens,  where  young  China  en- 
joys cycloramas,  spectacles,  and  distractions,  varied 
with  flower-shows  very  well  worth  seeing.  This 
much  of  Western  life  they  have  approached  to,  but 
nothing  so  discourages  one  for  the  future  of  China 
and  the  chances  of  progress  as  this  daily  display  of 
young  China  in  its  hours  of  ease.  Combining  all  of 
domestic  and  imported  depravity,  these  young  Chi- 
nese of  the  merchant  and  comprador  class,  longest  in 
contact  with  foreign  ways,  well  entitle  Shanghai  to 
its  repute  in  their  world  as  the  fastest  and  wickedest 
place  in  China.  The  Duke  of  Edinburgh  and  other 
experts  and  competent  judges  among  foreign  visitors 
long  ago  gave  the  model  settlement  the  palm  of  the 
same  unique  distinction  among  foreign  communities 
east  of  Suez. 

Shanghai  is  the  headquarters  station  for  nearly  all 
the  mission  boards  in  China,  and  the  local  directory 
lists  thirty -five  separate  establishments  under  the 
head  of  '^  churches  and  missions,"  this  bewildering 
number  of  roads  to  Christianity  having  drawn  criti- 
cism from  Dr.  Henry  Drummond  and  led  others 
to  wonder  if  missions  could  not  accomplish  more  if 
each  sect  had  one  separate  province  or  district  to  it- 
self, as  mission  work  among  American  Indian  tribes 
has  been  apportioned  to  the  different  denominations. 


288  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

The  Jesuit  Mission  at  Sicawei  has  been  in  existence 
for  more  than  a  century,  and  confers  benefits  upon 
the  foreign  community  in  the  observations  and  warn- 
ings issued  from  its  meteorological  observatory. 
The  time-ball  on  the  French  bund,  dropped  by  signal 
from  Sicawei,  regulates  clocks,  watches,  and  chronom- 
eters for  the  region,  and  under  the  direction  of  the 
learned  Jesuits  a  complete  system  of  observations 
is  maintained  along  the  China  seas.  It  was  the 
great  astronomer,  Padre  Faura,  of  the  Manila  Obser- 
vatory, who  first  observed  and  deduced  the  laws  of 
typhoons,  and  from  his  vantage-ground  of  Luzon,  off 
which  typhoons  are  bred  and  sent  circling  on  their 
way,  usually  toward  the  Formosa  Channel,  telegraphed 
warnings  to  the  China  coast.  The  l)enefits  to  ship- 
ping were  incalculable,  and  if  the  accuracy  and  time- 
liness of  the  Manila  and  Sicawei  warnings  had  not 
been  well  enough  established  before,  the  memorable 
wreck  of  the  P.  &  O.  steamer  Bohhara,  which  went 
to  sea  in  the  face  of  Sicawei  warnings,  taught  mariners 
a  lesson  for  all  typhoon  time. 

The  stranger,  of  course,  wishes  to  visit  the  old  city 
of  Shanghai,  but  he  should  repress  his  enthusiasm 
in  the  presence  of  the  foreign  resident,  and  never, 
under  any  circumstances,  no  matter  what  powerful  let- 
ters he  may  present,  what  ties  of  kinship  or  bonds  of 
old  friendship  he  may  claim,  expect  the  foreign  resi- 
dent to  accompany  him  there.  Nor  any  more  should 
he  talk  about  tlie  excursion  in  polite  Shanghai 
circles  afterward.  In  all  boredom  nothing  so  bores 
the  resident  as  the  globe-trotter's  tales  of  his  slum- 
ming in  the  native  city.     The  resident  has  usually 


TO  SHANGHAI  291 

never  been  there,  or  he  may  apologetically  explain 
that  he  did  go  once,  years  ago,  when  he  first  came, 
when  he  was  a  "  griffin,"  otherwise  a  '*  tenderfoot,"  in 
the  Far  East. 

Old  Shanghai  is  very  little  worth  seeing  com- 
pared with  either  Peking  or  Canton,  and  is  valuable 
chiefly  as  an  exhibit  of  contrasts,  lying  there  inert, 
unchanged,  uncleansed,  with  the  model  settlement 
beside  it  in  glaring  contrast  for  these  forty  years. 
One  balances  himself  on  a  passenger-wheelbarrow 
and  is  trundled  around  the  gray  old  walls,  passing  on 
the  way  a  dead-house,  where,  in  one  cholera  season 
that  I  passed  by,  some  two  thousand  coffins  were 
waiting  for  the  favorable  day  and  signs  for  burial. 
One  enters  the  gi'imy  vault  of  a  gate  and  leaves  the 
present  century.  There  are  a  few  temples  with 
cramped  and  crowded  and  noisy  courtyards  to  see, 
some  peony  and  chrysanthemum  gardens,  a  garden 
where  fan-tailed  goldfish  of  extraordinary  varieties 
are  reared  in  crocks  of  stagnant,  filthy  water,  and  a 
fantastic  tea-garden  or  gild-house  of  a  company  of 
merchants.  The  narrow  streets,  the  filth,  the  shout- 
ing crowds,  and  the  close  familiarity  of  the  people 
are  the  same  as  in  all  the  cities  of  China.  There  is  a 
tea-house  in  the  middle  of  a  sewery  pond,  approached 
by  zigzag  bridges,  which  is  not  the  house  of  the  wil- 
low-pattern plates,  despite  its  claim.  This  pond  is  a 
center  of  city  life,  the  one  open  glimpse  of  the  sky 
within  the  walls,  and  besides  the  daily  sales  of  jade 
and  cheap  jewelry,  letter-writers,  fortune-tellers,  cob- 
blers, barbers,  peripatetic  cooks  with  portable  kitch- 
ens, menders,  and  peddlers  hold  the  crowds  there. 


292  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

Once  I  happened  upon  an  outdoor  juggler  show  in 
which  a  woman  with  dwarfed  feet  lay  upon  a  rickety 
table,  and  twirled  and  tossed  huge  earthen  jars  in  air 
with  her  feet.  She  twirled  and  somersaulted  a  poor, 
pale  slip  of  a  child  in  the  same  way ;  then  balanced  a 
ladder  on  lier  feet,  and  the  child  crept  up  and  down 
the  rungs,  backward,  head  first,  posing  as  it  clung  or 
hung  to  the  swaying  ladder.  It  was  sickening  to 
watch,  and  we  moved  away,  when  yells  of  rage  arose, 
ladder  and  child  came  down  at  a  flash,  and  the  woman 
juggler  ran  after  us  with  the  rest.  The  foreigners 
had  contributed  after  seeing  the  first  feat,  but  were 
leaving  without  paying  again,  and  as  no  one  else  in 
the  open-air  audience  had  contributed  a  cash,  they 
could  not  let  us  take  any  such  informal  leave. 

The  curio-shops,  cleared  of  everything  of  merit,  hold 
only  the  merest  junk,  and  one  most  eminent  connois- 
seur said  sadly :  "  I  used  to  go  there  once  a  week,  and 
always  found  something  worthy  to  add  to  my  collec- 
tion. Now  I  never  go."  Another  sinologue  given 
to  prowling  the  old  city  told  of  a  modern  treasure  he 
unearthed  at  a  book-stall,  in  the  way  of  a  Chinese 
manual  for  house-sen''ants  in  foreign  employ.  There 
were  clear  instructions  how  to  pour  sherry  in  the 
master's  glass,  and  by  sleight  of  hand  continue  with 
a  bottle  of  inferior  wine  around  the  board ;  even  dia- 
grams of  how  to  arrange  cigars  in  a  box  to  conceal 
the  little  larcenies,  and  so  many  other  minute  in- 
structions to  the  perfect  servant  that  the  sinologue 
studied  it  himself,  and  found  that  he  had  evidently 
stumbled  upon  the  same  manual  in  use  in  his  own 
clockwork  household.     All  villainy  is  systematized 


TO  SHANGHAI  293 

in  China,  protected  by  gilds  even,  and  nothing  is  more  L/^ 
logical  and  reasonable  to  the  Chinese  mind  than  that 
the  shroffs  who  examine  all  moneys  in  foreign  mer- 
cantile establishments,  in  search  for  counterfeit  coins, 
should  first  serve  an  apprenticeship  to  the  different 
counterfeiters  of  their  city  or  province. 

The  Chinese  theater  is  well  worth  visiting,  and  de- 
spite the  absurd  conventionalities  and  traditions,  the 
want  of  scenery,  the  din  of  the  orchestra,  and  the 
actors'  high-pitched  and  falsetto  voices,  some  excel- 
lent art  is  manifested  there,  and  the  costuming  in 
the  historic  and  legitimate  drama  is  superb.  All  the 
topsyturvy  of  Chinese  logic  is  intensified,  and  the 
insanest  reversals  of  the  credible  are  given  rein  in 
comedies,  some  of  them  so  delightfully  farcical  that 
China  is  a  mine  for  exhausted  authors  and  adapters 
of  the  Western  dramatic  world  to  draw  upon.  Lost 
*'  face  "  is  the  supremely  delicious  situation,  the  hen- 
pecked husband  is  the  favorite  butt  and  victim,  and 
the  strong-minded  woman  is  the  dea  ex  machina  and 
pivot  of  action.  In  one  favorite  comedy,  a  burglar 
prayed  to  his  joss,  and  when  twice  pulled  back  by  a 
devil  in  black  calico,  cuffed  the  joss  soundly,  and  then 
entered  the  rich  man's  house  as  the  wife  was  about 
to  hang  herself.  He  cut  the  suicide  down,  and  when 
the  master  rushed  in  to  repel  the  burglar,  he  thanked 
him  instead  for  his  opportune  arrival,  and  the  joss 
was  used  as  club  to  beat  the  discomfited  devil.  Gor- 
geous officials  thanked  the  burglar,  who  tied  his  queue 
to  the  suicide's  noose,  and  swung  in  air  for  three 
whole  minutes— and  the  air  was  rent  with  the  ecstatic 
shouts  of  the  audience 


XXI 

THE  GREAT  BORE  OF  HANGCHOW 

[HERE  are  only  three  wonders  of  the 
world  in  China— the  Demons  at  Tung- 
chow,  the  Thunder  at  Lungchow,  and 
the  Great  Tide  at  Hangchow,  the  last 
the  greatest  of  all,  and  a  living  wonder 
to  this  day  of  "  the  open  door,"  while  its  rivals  are 
lost  in  myth  and  oblivion. 

On  the  eighteenth  night  of  the  second  moon,  and 
on  the  eighteenth  night  of  the  eighth  and  ninth 
moons  of  the  Chinese  year,  the  greatest  flood-tides 
from  the  Pacific  surge  into  the  funnel  moutb  of 
Hangchow  Bay  to  the  bars  and  flats  at  the  mouth  of 
the  swift-flowing  Tsien-tang.  The  river  current  op- 
poses for  a  while,  until  the  angry  sea  rises  up  and 
rides  on,  in  a  great,  white,  roaring,  bubbling  wave, 
ten,  twelve,  fifteen,  and  even  twenty  feet  in  height. 
The  Great  Bore,  the  White  Thing,  charges  up  the 
narrowing  river  at  a  speed  of  ten  and  thirteen  miles 
an  hour,  with  a  roar  that  can  be  heard  for  an  hour 
before  it  arrives,  tlie  most  sensational,  spectacular, 
fascinating  tidal  phenomenon— a  real  wonder  of  the 
whole  world,  worth  going  far  and  waiting  long  to  see, 

294 


THE  GREAT  BORE  OF  HANGCHOW     295 

Yet  how  very  few  go  to  see  it,  when  it  is  visible  at 
Hajning,  only  seventy  miles  distant  by  smooth  water- 
ways from  Shanghai,  where  luxurious  house-boats 
and  steam-launches  may  be  had  by  telephone  order ! 

Our  two  house-boats  were  lashed  side  by  side  as 
the  launch  puffed  out  up  the  Whangpu  River,  past 
the  British  and  French  settlements,  and  the  rows 
upon  rows  of  anchored  junks  off  the  gray  walls  of 
old  Shanghai.  We  slowed  up  at  the  liJcin,  or  customs 
station,  above  the  city  long  enough  for  the  pilot  to 
flourish  the  passports  against  the  glass  windows  of 
the  launch.  Every  few  hours  that  formality  was  re- 
peated, but  only  one  gunboat  on  the  Grand  Canal 
detained  us  to  read  the  documents.  There  was  a 
superb  sunset  as  we  reached  the  upper  end  of  the 
broad,  lake-like  Seven  Mile  Reach.  A  marvelous 
pale,  pure,  porcelain-blue  sky  shaded  to  greenish 
yellow  and  pure  lemon  near  the  horizon,  and  was 
dappled  over  with  tiny  white  clouds,  that  took  fire  as 
the  sun  sank  and  tipped  every  ripple  in  the  Reach 
with  its  reflected  flame.  As  the  sun's  burning  face 
fell,  a  round  white  cloud  in  tlie  opposite  east  turned 
rosy  pink,  and  in  silvery  lines  and  pearly  masses 
showed  all  the  continent  outlines  on  tlie  full  face  of 
the  splendid  ninth  moon,  tliat  was  to  Avork  the  wonder 
for  us. 

With  shrieks  and  toots  infernal,  our  launch  passed 
under  the  great  springing  arcli  of  a  bridge,  the  laofas 
("old  ones,"  or  captains)  let  slip  the  lashings,  and  the 
two  house-boats  trailed  tandem  into  the  Grand  Canal. 
We  threaded  watery  suburbs  and  rounded  the  moat 
of  a  walled  city  "  half  as  old  as  time,"  where  moon- 


296  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

light  and  reflecting  waters  made  witchery  with  crum- 
bling battlements  and  dragon-eaved  towers.  All 
night  the  screech  of  the  launch  waked  echoes  from 
city  walls  along  the  Grand  Canal,  towns  that  Taipiug 
rebels   had   besieged   and   Gordon   captured,  where 


A    .MAiaU.E    URIDGK. 


battle,  massacre,  and  fire  have  left  their  marks- 
ruined  bridges,  towers,  and  walls  eloquent  and  un- 
touched to  this  day. 

It  was  an  ideal  autumn  morning  as  we  trailed 
down  the  Grand  Canal  to  Samen.  The  stone  em- 
bankment, with  its  smooth  granite  curb,  once  ran 
continuous  for  tlie  six  hundred  odd  miles  of  the  Grand 
Canal  between  Hangchow  and  Peking.  It  was  a  great 
highway,  too,  and  dwelling  touched  dwelling  all  the 
way;  but  the  Taipings'  fury  spent  itself  in  tliis  prov- 
ince, the  last  stamping-ground  of  that  rebellion,  and 
but  one  thirtieth  of  the  population  survived.     "  The 


THE  GREAT   BORE  OF  HANGCHOW  297 

Sungs  made  the  roads  and  bridges,  the  Tangs  the 
towers,  the  Mings  the  pagodas,"  runs  the  Chinese 
saying,  and  all  three  dynasties  lavished  their  work 
along  this  imperial  highway  and  river.  China  is  pre- 
eminently the  land  of  bridges,  and  this  end  of  the 
Grand  Canal  once  assembled  such  a  collection  of 
bridges,  such  a  range  of  types  and  models,  as  no  other 
country  of  the  world  could  offer.  Bridge  after  bridge 
bowed  over  us,  humpbacked,  horseshoe,  spectacle, 
camel's-back,  and  needle's-eye  bridges,  their  ovals  or 
arches  often  springing  forty  and  fifty  feet  in  air- 
carved  parapets,  piers,  balustrades,  guardian  lions, 
dragon-mouthed  water-spouts,  and  lettered  tablets 
nearly  perfect,  the  mellowing  touch  of  time  having 
worn  all  angles  and  edges  smooth,  and  toned  the 
marble  to  a  rich,  warm  yellow.  Fallows,  those  monu- 
mental carved  gateways  erected  by  imperial  permis- 
sion as  memorials  to  some  dutiful  son  or  faithful 
widow,  are  in  such  numbers  now  along  the  canal  that 
they  must  once  have  stood  along  favored  reaches  like 
continuous  rood-screens  in  a  cathedral.  They  are 
now  battered  and  neglected,  sagging,  tottering,  top- 
pling into  ruins,  covered  with  moss  and  lichens,  that 
kindly  hide  the  ravages  of  their  lace-work  and  filigree 
carvings.  One  longs  to  transport  just  one  of  these 
wonderful  trophies  to  some  city  park  in  Europe  or 
America,  where  such  a  unique  piece  of  sculpture 
would  be  an  ornament  far  beyond  obelisks  or  cap- 
tured cannons. 

We  were  away  from  the  rice  and  beyond  the  cot- 
ton-fields of  the  immediate  Shanghai  section  of  the 
Great  Plain  of  Kiangsu,   the   "  Garden  of  China," 


298  CHINA:    THE   LONG-LIVED   EMPIRE 

where  tlie  iiiliabitants  number  eight  hundred  to  the 
square  mile.  All  along  the  luxuriant  green  shores 
blue-clad  figures  climbed  and  worked  among  the 
glowing,  crimson  tallow-trees,  gathering  the  berries 
for  primitive  household  candle-making.  Mile  after 
mile  of  short,  stunted  mulberries,  pollarded  like  wil- 
lows, bespoke  the  chief  industry  of  the  region.  The 
green  leaves  of  ling-gardens  covered  long  stretches  of 
side-waters,  squared  off  in  subdivisions  like  fields  on 
shore,  and  ling-farmers  paddling  about  in  tubs  to  tend 
their  crops  gave  a  holiday  air  to  this  culture  of 
Trapa  hicornis,  the  '' buffalo-head  "  nut.  There  was 
interest  along  every  mile  of  this  splendid  waterway, 
where  the  Sung  emperors  and  the  Great  Khan  trav- 
eled in  gilded  barges,  where  Marco  Polo,  Rashuddin, 
and  Ibn  Batuta  exhausted  Italian,  Persian,  and  Arabic 
in  describing  the  splendors  of  Cathay  centuries  before 
America  was  discovered. 

At  Samen  Ave  turned  from  the  broad,  embanked 
canal  and  the  imperial  telegraph  lines,  and  pursued 
water  lanes,  narrow  gleams  between  green  banks  and 
hedge-rows,  where  there  was  barely  room  for  boats 
to  pass.  Sa-jow,  Sa-men-yu,  Ko-ti,  and  towns  of  lesser 
import,  huddled  by  the  banks ;  arching  bridges,  tea- 
shops  with  overhanging  windows,  and  market  spaces 
all  crowded  with  the  same  unattractive  yellow  people, 
who  gaped  and  jeered  or  hai-yaied,  as  our  launch 
went  head  on,  whistling  and  screeching  like  mad, 
scattering  sampans  to  right  and  left.  The  creeks  and 
canals  grew  nai-rowcr,  the  arelies  of  tlie  bridges  lower, 
until  smoke-stack  and  kitchen  stove])ipes  had  to 
hinge  back   on  the  decks  to   let  us  .squeeze  under. 


THE  GREAT  BORE  OF  HANGCHOW     299 

Here  all  the  ways  are  waterways,  and  land  transpor- 
tation extends  only  from  creek  to  creek,  across  a  field 
or  two.  Crops  are  carried,  markets  are  supplied  and 
attended,  even  peddlers  and  tinkers  go  by  boats,  and 
the  people  have  learned  to  row  with  their  feet  as  well 
as  their  hands.  These  "  foot-boats  "  were  the  most 
comical,  laughable  things  we  saw— tiny  shells  of  sam- 
pans, each  with  its  crew  of  one,  lounging  astern, 
grasping  the  oar  with  his  long,  nimble,  ape-like  toes, 
and  steering  by  a  short  paddle  held  close  under  one 
arm.  There  was  a  grotesque  air  of  ease  and  leisure 
to  these  boatmen,  who  kicked  their  wriggling  way 
over  the  water,  leaning,  and  apparently  loafing  at 
ease,  steering  by  the  armpits,  and  openly  despising 
those  who  toiled  with  their  hands. 

We  passed  a  gaily  decked  ''  wedding-boat "  hung 
with  red  cloth  and  red  lanterns,  the  red-curtained 
chair  set  amidships,  and  the  red  boxes  and  trunks 
supposed  to  contain  the  trousseau,  the  corbeil,  the 
regalia,  the  showy  and  borrowed  properties,  the  too 
often  mock  treasures  of  a  Chinese  wedding  proces- 
sion, piled  at  the  stern.  There  was  hubbub  on  the 
banks,  boats  were  tethered  in  lines,  and  the  cortege 
only  waited  for  our  shrieking  train  to  pass  before 
starting  off  to  make  the  country-side  ring  with  the 
fiddles  and  gongs  of  joy.  This  wedding  of  the  keeper 
of  the  chief  restaurant  at  the  village  of  Three  Bridges 
to  the  daughter  of  a  rich  up-canal  farmer  was  as 
great  an  event  to  the  sets  and  circles  of  these  oozy 
reaches  and  back-waters  of  Cliekiang  as  any  nuptials 
by  tlie  Adriatic.  Crowds  pressed  to  the  Three  Bridges 
and    })ung  out    of  village  windows,  taking  us   for 


•^ 


300  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

a  first  part  of  the  pageant ;  but  the  whole  community 
jeered  when  the  mistaken  musicians  ceased  to  twang 
and  thump  in  our  honor  on  discovering  that  not  a 
red  lantern,  nor  a  red  rag,  nor  a  sign  of  the  joy  color 
connected  us  with  the  great  event.  Language  all 
consonants  hurtled  through  the  air  to  the  crew  of  the 
launch,  well  known  in  the  mulberry  country  by  their 
frequent  visits  to  buy  cocoons  for  Shanghai  filatures, 
and  there  and  at  two  other  villages  they  tried  to  cast 
us  off,  insisting  that  creeks  were  too  narrow,  too  shal- 
low, and  the  bridges  too  low  for  the  launch  to  go 
farther.  Despite  protestations  and  theatric  frenzy, 
we  pointed  the  way  down  the  green  canal  ahead,  and 
the  launch  laota,  with  lost  "  face,"  went  on. 

At  noon  we  shot  under  a  bridge,  and  emerged  in 
the  broad  moat  at  the  northwest  angle  of  the  walls 
of  Haining.  There  were  the  same  gray  brick,  battle- 
mented  walls  as  surround  all  these  provincial  towns, 
a  green  bank  of  grass  and  trees  sloping  along  the 
north  side  of  the  moat,  that  was  only  a  basin,  and 
ended  against  a  high  stone  embankment,  where  a 
noble  pagoda  overtopped  the  main  city  gate.  The 
basin  was  crowded  with  cargo-boats  loading  and 
unloading.  Coolies  with  gi'ain-bags  and  fagots  on 
their  shoulders  toiled  up  and  disappeared  by  flagged 
paths  among  the  trees,  and  coolies  with  heavy  loads  of 
straw  paper  and  dried  fish  descended  in  monotonous 
strings  like  so  many  ants.  The  stone  slabs  were  worn 
smooth  and  slippery  by  the  bare  feet  of  generations, 
until  it  was  a  feat  to  turn  the  angles  at  the  city 
gates,  escaping  the  lines  of  grunting  coolies,  and 
come  out  on  the  broad,  high  embankment  between 


THE  GREAT  BORE  OF  HANGCHOW 


301 


the  city  wall  and  the  Tsien-tang  River.  This  great 
stone-faced  sea-wall,  with  its  high  embankment  of 
rammed  earth  and  stone  and  piles,  extends  along 
this  north  bank  of  the  Tsien-tang  River  for  more 


MAP  OF  HANGCHOW  BAY  TO  TSIEN-TANG  RIVEB,  WITH  WATERWAYS  FROM 
SHANGHAI  TO  HAINING,  HANGCHOW. 

From  U.  S.  Hydrographic  Chart  No.  1305,  with  inland  waterways  from  French  authorities. 


than  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles,  a  monument  of 
toil,   repeated    and   repeated,  rebuilt   and   repaired 
ceaselessly  for  more  than  twelve  hundred  years. 
The  Tsien-tang,  a  muddy,  uninteresting  stream,  is  a 


302  CHINA:   THE   LONG-LIVED   EMPIRE 

mile  wide  off  Haining,  and  at  that  hour  of  higli  tide 
flowed  within  a  few  feet  of  the  embankment's  level. 
A  string  of  clumsV;  flat-bottomed  Ningpo  junks,  gau- 
dily {){iinted,  and  with  protruding  eyes  at  the  bows,  lay 
tethered  to  the  bank,  exchanging  cargoes  with  the 
boats  in  the  basin ;  for,  owing  to  the  furious  tides, 
there  is  no  direct  water  connection  between  this  end 
of  the  Grand  Canal  and  the  river.  Coolies,  idlers,  and 
shipping  circles  gathered  around  us,  gaping  with  that 
brainless,  aimless,  stupid,  stolid,  maddening  stare  of 
the  Chinese  millions,  that  is  the  last  irritant  to  foreign 
nerves  and  antipathies.  They  tagged  after  us  into 
the  fine  old  Bhota  pagoda,  built  a  thousand  years  ago 
to  secure  a  favorable  fung-shui  for  Haining,  and  to  ar- 
rest the  ravages  of  the  awful  water-dragon.  The  pa- 
goda, although  its  lower  story  is  used  as  a  granary, 
with  no  altars  visible,  is  in  excellent  condition,  and 
from  each  of  its  six  galleries,  with  the  fantastic  roofs 
and  dangling  wind-bells,  there  is  a  better  view  of  the 
brown  river  and  the  low  green  shore  opposite,  with 
the  vaporous  blue  outlines  of  the  Ningpo  mountains 
shoAving  beyond  Hangchow  Bay,  which  opens  two 
miles  below. 

Farther  down  the  embankment  there  is  a  clean, 
new  temple  to  the  water-god,  where  junkmen  put  up 
prayers  and  offer  gifts,  and  the  priests  try  to  ap- 
pease every  high  tide  with  fire-crackers,  gongs,  in- 
cense, and  prayers.  To  all  questioning  they  responded 
with  a  strong  sense  of  their  responsibility  to  carry 
on  the  business  they  were  engaged  in,  but  they 
hazarded  nothing  as  to  the  efficacy  of  their  ways  of 
dealing    and    arguing    with    the    bore.     The  ])riests 


THE  GREAT  BORE  OF  HANGCHOW     303 

knew  less  than  any  one  else  about  the  one  bronze  cow 
that  lies  adrift  in  the  grass  by  the  city  waU ;  for  all  the 
bank-side  knew  that  there  had  once  been  fifty  of  these 
cows  on  the  broad  terrace  to  watch  the  water-dragon 
and  protect  Haining,  and  that  the  others  had  all 
"  walked  away  "  when  a  more  furious  bore  than  usual 
washed  over  the  embankment.  Lightning  had  struck 
and  dehorned  this  one  remaining  guardian,  and 
strange  abrasions  of  the  surface  suggested  the  shot 
and  shell  of  Taiping  times ;  but  it  was  ''  No  sabe  "  as 
to  these  strange  gougings  in  the  solid  metal,  and 
"  No  sabe  "  as  to  what  the  inscription  on  its  shoulder 
meant. 

A  small  rabble  tagged  after  us  to  our  boats,  and 
youngsters  on  the  city  wall  maintained  a  plunging 
fire  of  stones  and  bits  of  brick  and  mortar.  They 
howled  and  made  faces  at  us,  drew  fingers  across 
their  necks  in  cutthroat  sign,  lay  in  ambush  and 
"  sniped  "  us  as  long  as  daylight  lasted.  Whenever 
they  saw  a  hated  foreign  head  they  tried  to  hit  it. 
We  were  ten  thousand  miles  away,  virtually  in  Eu- 
rope, in  the  warm,  bright  cabin  of  the  house-boat,  the 
silken  boy  of  the  velvet  foot  serving  the  convention- 
ally perfect  dinner  on  a  flower-decked  table  shining 
with  silver  and  glass ;  but  when  we  came  out  on  the 
bank  at  eleven  o'clock,  old,  gray  Haining  was  there  in 
the  moonlight,  as  still  and  dead  and  turned  to  stone 
as  the  castle  of  the  Sleeping  Beauty,  and  all  around 
it  lay  that  unmistakable,  great  graveyard— China. 

Before  midnight,  the  rows  of  junks  had  disappeared 
bodily  from  the  sea-wall,  had  dropped  twenty  feet 
with  the  tide  to  a  broad  stone  shelf  that  made  out 


304  CHINA:  THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIEE 

twenty  feet  toward  the  shrunken  river.  This  junk 
platform,  or  shelter,  bordered  with  double  rows  of 
piling  and  rough  stones,  extends  along  the  sea-wall 
for  a  thousand  yards,  defended  by  two  great  curv'iug 
buttresses,  built  out  to  deflect  the  bore's  fury.  The 
junks  sat  high  and  dry,  squarely  on  their  flat  timbers, 
on  this  platform,  seven  feet  above  the  low-running 
Tsien-tang,  slipping  swiftly  with  a  hoarse,  stealthy, 
treacherous  rippling  out  to  sea. 

Then  distantly,  far  away,  came  a  soft,  long-rolling 
undertone,  a  muffled  thumpetij-tlmmpety-tliumpety- 
thumpety^  that  continued  and  continued,  grew  nearer 
and  louder ;  was  now  the  tramp  of  a  charging  cavalry 
thundering  past  at  a  gi*and  review,  then  the  leaden 
pounding  of  surf  upon  a  coral  reef ;  the  unmistakable 
sound  of  falling  water ;  the  booming,  dashing  rever- 
beration of  breaking  waves,  of  waves  breaking  with- 
out cessation  or  interval,  beating  slowly  the  mighty 
diapason  of  the  sea. 

The  moon  was  riding  at  the  very  zenith,  and  it 
dizzied  us  to  look  up  to  it.  Each  one  stood  evenly 
within  the  circle  of  his  own  clear-cut  shadow  on  the 
ground,  at  that  moment  of  the  moon's  transit,  and 
the  bore  was  due ;  but  it  was  a  calm  night,  and  it  was 
three  quarters  of  an  hour  after  our  unaccustomed 
ears  had  caught  the  first  far-distant,  muttering  un- 
dertone before  the  White  Thing  was  seen,  a  ghastly 
line  advancing  as  evenly  over  the  water,  and  as 
quickly,  as  the  dark  shadow  of  an  eclipse  sweeps  over 
a  lands(;ape.  Nearer  and  nearer  it  roared,  growing 
greater  and  whiter,  until  we  could  see  the  whole  cas- 
cading, bubbling,  frothing  front,  with  spray-drops 


THE  GKEAT   HOKE. 


THE  GREAT  BORE  OF  HANGCHOW     307 

showering  from  the  crest  higher  up  in  moonlight. 
With  the  roar  of  awful  waters  the  dread  thing  came 
on,  raising  its  white  crest  higher  and  higher  as  it 
licked  the  edges  of  the  piles  beyond  which  the  junks 
lay.  There  were  shouts  and  yells,  and  the  usual 
boatmen's  pandemonium  let  loose  on  the  junks  as  the 
roaring  wave  approached.  A  rocket  sizzed,  some  fire- 
crackers sputtered  and  gongs  resounded,  but  all  small 
sounds  of  earth's  creatures  were  drowned  as  the  fear- 
ful White  Thing  crashed  past,  and  a  frightful  hissing, 
a  seething,  lashing,  and  swirling  of  still  higher  billows 
succeeded,— the  most  sinister  sound  of  water  ever 
heard,— all  speeding,  rushing,  whirling  madly,  irre- 
sistibly on. 

As  the  ten-foot  wall  of  foam  reached  the  edge  of 
the  piling  and  the  junk  platform,  it  floated  the  junks 
loose  at  the  instant.  Each  junk  rode  to  the  flood's 
fury  bow  on,  and  continued  to  rise,  to  lift  itself  bod- 
ily up,  up,  along  the  sea-wall  before  one's  fascinated 
gaze.  In  the  fierce  after-rush  the  water  went  swifter 
and  more  swiftly  by,  until  one  had  a  dizzying  sense 
of  danger  to  come,  but  past  fleeing  from.  Something 
held  one  fascinated  to  the  spot,  although  in  the  fewest 
minutes,  barely  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  two  thirds  of 
the  whole  body  and  mass  of  the  flood-tide  had  flung 
itself  against  the  wall,  and,  it  seemed,  might  continue 
to  rise  with  the  same  force  for  hours.  A  salt,  fresh 
smell  of  the  sea,  the  breath  of  the  ocean's  coolest, 
deepest  under-world,  came  in  with  the  awful  tide.  A 
gliastly  mist  succeeded.  Shreds  of  vapor  scudded 
over  the  triumphant  moon,  and  the  sea's  curtain  fell 
on  one  of  the  most  sensational,  spectacular  perform- 


308  CHINA:   THE   LONG-LIVED   EMPIRE 

ances  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  the  moon  ever  make 
together. 

The  next  midday,  just  at  noon,  our  straining  ears 
caught  the  first  far-away,  long-rolling  thump,  thump, 
thump,  as  steady  as  the  beat  of  a  dynamo,  and  we 
could  see  a  white  line  at  the  farthest  distance  on  the 
water.  We  watched  it  wdth  glasses,  and  then  with 
the  eye,  as  it  came  over  the  broad  level,  and  then  won- 
dered why  that  one  long,  slow,  white  breaker  should 
have  been  so  frightful  and  awe-inspiring  just  by  the 
witchery  of  midnight  and  moonlight.  But  at  a  dis- 
tance of  a  quarter,  and  then  of  an  eighth  mile,  the  wave 
seemed  to  gather  impetus,  to  rise,  to  double,  and  to 
foam  still  higher,  and  sw'ept  past  under  our  feet  with 
the  speed  and  fury  of  a  whirlwind.  It  shook  the 
earthy  filling  of  the  gi*eat  buttress,  beat  the  ear  with 
a  roar  that  was  appalling,  and  my  breathing  and  my 
knees  were  not  normal  any  more  than  at  midnight. 
The  old  writers  say :  "  The  surge  thereof  rises  like  a 
hill,  and  the  w^ave  like  a  house ;  it  roars  like  thunder, 
and  as  it  comes  on  it  appears  to  swallow  the  heavens 
and  bathe  the  sun," 

The  front  wall  of  water,  one  long  line  stretched 
from  shore  to  shore,  was  a  confused,  seething  w^liite 
mass  of  bubbles,  spray,  and  foam  over  ten  feet  in 
height,  curving  four  or  five  feet  higher  at  mid-stream, 
while  back  of  this  whole  front  wall  the  water  sloped 
up  still  higher  in  great  billows  and  tossing  spray. 
The  abrupt  white  bank  of  foam  did  not  seem  to  op- 
pose and  stem  the  river  current  squarely,  to  turn  it 
back,  to  roll  it  over  upon  itself,  and  back  it  up-stream, 
as  one  might  picture  it.     The  swift  brown  river  ran 


THE  GEE  AT  BORE   OF   HANGCHOW  309 

as  rapidly  as  ever  toward  the  sea  as  the  bore  advanced, 
and  the  great  wave,  moving  twenty  feet  a  second, 
seemed  to  overrun  it,  to  hurl  itself  upon  and  break 
over  the  brown  plane  of  tlie  river  as  if  it  were  a  solid 
floor.  The  great  wave  is  foreshortened  and  belittled 
when  one  looks  down  upon  it  from  the  twenty-five- 
foot  sea-wall,  and  the  lens  reduces  it  contemptibly  in 
photographs ;  but  while  one  hears  or  remembers  that 
frightful,  incredible,  awful  roar,  he  is  not  wanting  in 
respect  for  this  white  terror  of  the  sea. 

A  long  string  of  junks  lay  stranded  on  the  platform 
below  the  sea-wall,  their  bows  pointed  down-stream, 
and  bamboo  cables  made  fast  to  trees  on  the  embank- 
ment. At  the  first  touch  of  the  foaming  wave's  edge 
each  junk  was  afloat,  and  leaping  by  inches  up  the 
face  of  the  sea-wall  in  unearthly  fashion.  Each  junk- 
man was  screeching  like  mad  as  he  fended  his  boat 
off  from  the  stone  wall  and  from  his  neighbors,  but 
no  sound  could  be  heard  until  the  roaring  wave  had 
gone  by,  and  the  evil  hiss  and  seethe  of  the  after-rush 
had  subsided.  The  wave  raced  up  the  river,  and  wild 
waters  rushed  after,  at  the  rate  of  thirteen  miles  an 
hour.  A  score  of  big  brown  junks,  in  full  sail,  hover- 
ing in  the  bay  behind  the  bore,  entered  the  river  and 
came  careering  up-stream,  riding  the  after-rush  as 
lightly  as  cockle-shells.  The  huge  lumbering  arks 
dipped  and  danced,  spun  around  in  circles,  and,  lielp- 
less  in  the  sweep  and  swirl  of  that  flood-burst,  made 
for  every  point  of  the  compass,  going  bow  first,  stern 
first,  broadside  on,  rocking  and  pirouetting  with  all 
sails  flapping  in  the  maddest  fashion.  It  made  one 
feel  dizzy  to  watch  these  antics,  and  one  might  next 


310  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

expect  the  pagoda  to  dance  across  the  sea-wall.  At 
the  approach  of  these  bewitched  boats  every  junkman 
by  the  bank  seized  his  boat-hook,  and  ki-jded  at  the 
top  of  his  lungs.  By  some  magic  a  few  junks  finally 
swept  in  lessening  circles  toward  the  shore,  waltzed 
around  and  around  as  deliberately  as  so  many  dancers 
seeking  good  seats  along  a  ball-room  wall,  made  a  last 
wheeling  turn,  let  down  sails  with  a  clatter,  and  each 
dropped  exactly  in  and  stopped  in  a  chosen  berth  by 
the  sea-wall.  There  was  collapse  and  reaction  as  this 
manoeuver  and  our  nerve-tension  ended,  for  never 
have  I  seen  a  more  thrilling  or  neater  nautical 
feat.  ''Wrinkles  in  Navigation"  does  not  begin  to 
inform  the  halyard  world  of  what  can  be  done 
with  sheet  and  rudder  with  a  big  bore  as  auxil- 
iary. Cat-boat  sailing  in  a  squall,  or  ocean  cup- 
racing  in  half  a  gale,  are  tame  sports  compared 
with  this  riding  in  on  the  great  wild  bore's  back, 
and  dropping  away  from  its  crest  at  the  desired 
moment  as  precisely  as  the  tiniest  naphtha-launch 
could  do  it. 

A  few  of  the  waiting  junks  let  go,  struck  out  into 
the  stream,  and  rode  with  the  other  junks  on  the  back 
of  the  bore  up  the  river  toward  Hangchow,  the  wave 
usually  traveling  that  twenty-three  miles  up-stream  in 
two  hours.  The  bore  decreases  in  height  as  it  rolls  on 
up-stream  and  up-hill,  and  if  ten  feet  high  when  pass- 
ing Haining,  is  usually  but  five  feet  high  when  abreast 
of  Hangchow,  and  dies  away  in  the  upper  river,  the 
last  ripples  of  the  highest  bore  being  observed  eigh- 
teen miles  above  the  city.  All  navigation  up  the  swift 
river  is  necessarily  in  the  wake  of  the  bore,  and  within 


JUNKS  HIDING  IX  ON  TUE  AFTEli-KUSH. 


THE  GEEAT  BORE  OF  HANGCHOW     313 

two  hours  after  it  passes  Hangchow,  junks  must  start 
down-stream  or  seek  a  shelter  on  the  junk  platforms. 
If  a  junk  cannot  reach  a  platform  before  the  tide 
leaves  the  shelf  dry,  its  fate  is  decided.  No  vessel 
could  meet  that  irresistible  wall  of  water  and  live, 
and  for  five  hours  before  the  bore  comes  no  junks 
are  seen  off  Haining.  The  transport  Kite,  during  the 
opium  war  (1840),  touched  on  a  bank  at  the  north  of 
the  river  and  was  instantly  overturned  by  the  tide. 
A  little  later  the  PhlegetJion,  reconnoitering  the  ap- 
proaches to  Hangchow,  broke  her  cables,  and  had  an 
alarming  drive  with  the  tide. 

The  literature  ^  of  the  bore  is  brief,  and  for  the  most 
part  technical  and  scientific. 

1  "Journal  of  the  North  China  Branch  Royal  Asiatic  Society," 
January,  1853.     A  paper  by  Dr.  Maegowan. 

"  Joiirnal  of  the  North  China  Branch  Royal  Asiatic  Society," 
Vol.  XXIII,  No.  3,  1888.  "  The  Bore  of  the  Tsien  Tang  Kiang," 
by  Commodore  W.  Osborne  Moore,  R.N. 

"Report  on  the  Bore  of  the  Tsien  Tang  Kiang"  (1889), 
"  Further  Report  on  the  Bore  of  the  Tsien  Tang  Kiang  "  (1893), 
by  W.  O.  Moore,  R.N.      Publications  of  the  Admiralty  Office. 

''Journal  of  the  Institute  of  Civil  Engineers,"  1893.  Paper 
by  Commodore  W.  O.  Moore,  R.N. 

"  Annalen  Hydrographie,"  Berlin,  1896,  pp.  466-475.  "Die 
Sprungwelle  in  der  Mundung  der  Tsien  Tang  Kiang." 

"Century  Magazine,"  October,  1898.  "Bores,"  by  G.  H. 
Darwin. 

Milne's  "Life  in  China,"  p.  295. 

Moule's  "New  China  and  Old,"  pp.  44,  45,  279. 

Fortune's  "  Residence  among  tlie  Chinese,"  pp.  309,  316. 

Wheeler's  (W.  H.)  "Tidal  Rivers,"  pp.  106-109. 

Darwin's  (G.  H.)  "The  Tides,"  pp.  59-75. 

Beresford's  (Lord  Charles)  "  Break-up  of  China,"  p.  344. 


314  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

The  city  of  Haininj;:  offered  us  little  of  interest, 
save  the  one  clean  and  spacious  temple  to  the  local 
genii,  whose  courts  and  passages  were  reached  through 
classic  pailows,  guarded  by  lackadaisical  lions  of  Fo 
grotesquely  coquetting  with  the  sacred  jewels.  There 
are  finely  cut,  stone-tracery  windows,  and  quaint  pa- 
vilions with  carved  shrines,  and  a  fine  phenix-pan- 
eled  ceiling  in  the  sanctuary  which  shelters  the  gilded 
images.  The  names  of  Haining's  successful  candi- 
dates at  the  great  literary  examinations  are  immortal- 
ized here,  but  the  treasure  of  interest  to  the  foreign- 
er's eye  is  a  great  stone  chart,  an  imperishable  map 
of  the  bay  and  river  cut  in  stone  and  set  in  the  wall. 
Some  thousands  of  taels  had  recently  been  spent  in 
the  restoration  of  this  temple,  from  which  emerges  the 
annual  procession  after  the  full  of  the  second  and 
eighth  moons,  as  at  the  similar  temple  in  Hangchow, 
when  the  of&cials  and  thousands  of  people  assemble 
at  the  bank  to  appease  the  spirit  of  the  bore  by  prayers, 
offerings  of  food,  sham  money,  and  treasures,  accom- 
panied by  tens  of  thousands  of  fire-crackers.  More  an- 
ciently the  crossbowmen  were  called  out  and  fired  their 
arrows  at  the  advancing  flood  to  drive  it  back,  for  the 
Chinese  know  perfectly  well  what,  or  rather  who,  the 
bore  is. 

It  began,  their  most  truthful  records  say,  in  the 
fifth  century  B.C.,  when  Prince  Tsze-sii,  of  the  state 
or  kingdom  of  Wu,  offended  the  sovereign  Fu-ch'a, 
who  sent  him  a  sword.  Tsze-sii  obediently  com- 
mitted suicide,  and  his  body  was  thrown  into  the 
river,  as  requested.  He  had  promi.sed  that  at  dawn 
and  at  dusk  he  would  come  on  the  tide  to  watch  the 


THE  GREAT  BORE  OP  HANGCHOW     315 

fall  and  ruin  of  Wu,  and  the  classics  relate  how  the 
great  tides  then  came  with  "  a  wrathful  sound,  and  the 
swift  rush  of  thunder  and  lightning  could  be  heard 
more  than  thirty  li  off."  Tsze-sii's  spirit  is  the  god 
of  the  great  tide,  and  in  recurrent  rage,  in  revenge 
and  reprisal  for  the  way  he  was  abused  in  this  world, 
he  revisits  the  scene  to  wash  away  banks,  flood  the 
low  country,  and  spread  ruin  around.  "  Then  might 
be  seen  in  the  midst  of  the  tide-head,  Tsze-sii  sitting 
in  a  funeral-car  drawn  by  white  horses.  Whereupon 
they  built  a  temple  to  appease  him  with  sacrifice."  ^ 
Temples  have  been  built  in  every  town,  and  between 
towns,  along  the  river,  to  appease  his  wrath ;  prayers 
and  sacrifice  have  been  offered  for  these  two  thousand 
odd  years;  every  dynasty  has  conferred  titles  and 
posthumous  honors  upon  him  and  his  ancestors ;  im- 
perial epistles  have  been  read  and  thrown  to  him : 
but  it  is  all  too  late.  Tsze-sii  is  a  good  hater,  and  a 
f  jw  thousand  years  is  a  short  time  for  a  Chinese 
ghost  to  cherish  a  grudge. 

Tsze-sii's  fearful  wave  has  always  been  recognized 
as  a  great  sight,  and  when  Bayan,  the  conquering 
lieutenant  of  Genghis  Khan,  had  captured  Hangchow 
and  received  the  jade  seal  of  the  Sungs,  he  was  taken 
to  the  river-bank  to  see  Tsze-sii  go  by,  during  the 
third  moon  (April)  in  our  year  1276  a.d. 

Barring  the  damage  and  the  restrictions  to  com- 
merce, and  the  annual  expense  for  fire-crackers,  silk, 
rice,  and  "joss-money,"  what  a  spectacular,  sensa- 
tional, splendid  old  custom  Tsze-sii  maintains  un- 
broken !     And  if  the  Chinese  had  half  the  wit  Jthey 

1  Translation  by  Bishop  Monle  froin  the  "  Hsi-jui-chi." 


316  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

are  credited  with,  how  easily  could  the  riverside  recoup 
itself  for  all  loss  and  expenditures  !  Fancy  excursion- 
trains  to  Haining;  hired  windows  and  balconies  at 
Bore  View  Hotel ;  chartered  junks  for  wild  rides  up 
the  river  on  the  bore's  back ;  and  midnight  illumina- 
tions by  red  fire  when  the  moon  failed !  Alas  that 
this  money-coining,  dividend-paying  wonder  could 
not  have  happened  to  a  thrifty  Swiss  canton,  instead 
of  to  the  by-parts  of  Chekiang !  Surely  in  the  next 
century  it  will  be  different,  and  the  bore  will  be  set 
to  earning  its  own  living,  working  machinery  for 
electric  power,  and  gradually  making  payments  on 
the  bill  of  damages  running  unpaid  for  two  thousand 
years ;  and  the  Shanghai  Chamber  of  Commerce,  rec- 
ognizing its  obligations,  the  cause  of  Shanghai's  trade 
importance,  will  erect  some  monument  or  tablet  to 
Tsze-sii's  spirit,  who  turned  trade  to  the  Wusung  and 
away  from  the  Tsien-tang. 

The  embankments  were  built  in  the  eighth  and 
tenth  centuries,  the  stone-faced  sea-wall  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  and  in  the  last  century  the  Emperor 
Kienlung  spent  the  equivalent  of  some  ten  million 
gold  dollars  on  the  embankments  of  the  Tsien-tang. 
A  thousand  coolies  are  continually  at  work  repairing, 
it  is  said.  Even  in  these  poor  days  of  peculation  and 
decay,  the  public-works  expenditures  of  the  district 
are  tempting  prizes  to  expectant  tao-tais  and  magis- 
trates who  have  passed  the  literary  examinations. 

The  Tsien-tang  ran  low  and  still,  sullenly,  stealthily, 
in  its  dying  ebb  to  the  sea  on  the  great  eighteenth 
night.  There  was  a  thin  mist  on  land  and  river,  a 
half-haze  over  the  moon,  and  unearthly  chill  drafts 


THE  GREAT  BORE  OF  HANGCHOW     317 

blew  to  us,  as  we  sat  straining  our  ears  for  a  first 
sound  of  our  third  and  final  bout  with  the  bore  on  its 
last  great  night  of  the  year.  We  had  heard  it  the 
first  night  at  12  :  10,  and  the  wave  passed  us  at  12  :  50 ; 
but  this  second  midnight  our  better-educated  ears 
caught  the  faint  murmur,  the  swelling  undertone  of 
the  sea,  the  thwnq),  thump,  thump  of  far-away  overfalls 
at  12 :  25,  at  the  moment  it  must  have  formed  in  de- 
fiant front  against  the  swift  river  current  off  Chisan 
headland,  twelve  miles  away.  There  was  an  hour  of 
eager,  fascinated  listening  as  the  great  sea-prelude 
increased  in  volume  and  rose  to  crescendo  in  a  mighty 
threnody.  At  1 :  23  ''  the  eager  raised  its  horrid 
crest,"  and  with  the  deafening  roar  of  ten  thousand 
pounding  ore-stamps  raged  past  in  a  great  burst  of 
foam.  Then  the  hiss  of  ten  thousand  serpents,  a 
swish  and  mighty  ripples,  and  the  tide  had  come  in 
again,  and  with  it  the  strange,  damp  smell  of  the 
under-sea.  The  bore  was  certainly  greatest  that  night, 
and  one  million  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  tons 
of  water  undoubtedly  thundered  past  in  each  minute. 
"We  could  see  it  in  the  strange  moonlight  arching 
higher  toward  the  middle  of  the  river,  foaming  whiter 
over  the  platform  where  the  junks  lay  waiting,  and 
its  whole  charge  past  with  that  unearthly  roar  was 
more  sensational  and  awe-inspiring  than  before.  The 
moon  hung  directly  overhead  as  the  crest  of  fury 
passed  the  pagoda;  a  rocket  and  some  sputtering 
crackers  told  that  the  priests  were  doing  their  duty, 
and  immediately  a  pall  of  mist  shut  down  upon  us, 
and  ended  the  higli  water's  great  season  night  of  that 
year  off  Haining. 


ni8  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

A  friendly  old  junkman  assured  us  again  that  these 
autumn  bores  were  the  best,  the  greatest  of  the  year ; 
that  the  eighteenth  nights  of  the  eighth  and  ninth 
moons  were  the  dates  for  sensational  bores,  better  even 
than  the  eighteenth  of  the  second  moon,  unless— 
unless  an  easterly  wind  or  a  long  storm  were  raging 
outside.  ''  Hai-ya  !  "  said  the  old  fellow.  "  The  great- 
est sight  was  three  years  ago  [1893],  at  big  tide  of  the 
eighth  moon.  The  wave  came  over  this  sea-wall,  struck 
the  pagoda,  and  poured  sea-water  into  the  basin. 
Many  people  were  killed ;  many  junks  broke  away 
and  were  lost,  many  were  broken  agafnst  the  stone 
wall." 

''That  was  the  year  before  you  went  to  war  with 
the  Japanese.  It  was  a  sign  of  bad  luck."  The 
junker  grunted  disgust.  ''Now  if  another  big  wave 
comes  and  kills  people  and  breaks  junks,  you  may 
know  there  will  be  another  war,  and  those  Manchus 
will  be  driven  out  of  Peking." 

"  That  would  be  good,"  said  the  man  of  Ningpo, 
and  future  visitors  may  learn  whether  that  random 
suggestion  has  crystallized  into  a  good,  serviceable 
legend  yet. 


XXII 

IN  A  PROVINCIAL  YAMUN 


^^^^ZjlNCE  in  the  course  of  time,  there  came  a 

Op  letter  in  exquisitely  written  characters 
m  from  a  blue-buttoned  official  of  secretly 
progressive  and  reform  tendencies,  in- 
viting us  to  visit  him  in  the  gray,  old 
provincial  city  which  he  governed— a  city  which 
shall  be  nameless.  That  was  passport  to  what  I 
most  wanted  to  see  in  China,  but  we  had  also  double- 
page  passports  with  the  neatly  pinked  seal  of  the 
American  consulate,  and  a  smudge  of  red  salve  an- 
swering for  the  official  vermilion  stamp  of  the  con- 
senting tao-tai  of  Shanghai,  who  besought  for  us  safe 
transit  in  search  of  health  and  feathered  game  down 
the  Grand  Canal  and  vicinity,  "  in  accordance  with 
the  provisions  of  the  treaty  of  Tientsin." 

It  was  restful  to  move  by  sail  and  oar  and  tow- 
rope,  rather  than  play  crack-the-whip  behind  a  shriek- 
ing, cinder-spitting  fire-boat,  and  we  floated  away  in 
the  afternoon,  and  were  soothed  asleep  by  the  slow 
thump  of  the  big  oars,  the  easy  gurgle  and  swish  of 
water,  and  strange  rappings  below  as  beds  of  heavy- 
n  319 


320  CHINA:    THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

topped  water-plants  slipped  uuder  the  keel.  The 
sickly-sweet  fumes  of  the  opium-pipe  arose,  the  oars 
beat  more  slowly,  and  we  were  silently  drawn  in  and 
made  fast  to  the  bank  while  the  faithless  laota  slept. 
We  wakened  to  find  ourselves,  not  by  the  battle- 
raented  walls  of  the  city,  but  still  pursuing  canals  or 
ditches  across  the  same  green  prairie  of  rice-  and 
millet-  and  cotton-fields,  of  mulberry-  and  tallow-tree 
plantations,  with  the  same  beautiful  and  quaint  old 
stone  and  marble  bridges  curving  over  the  water- 
ways. Long  slabs  of  hewn  stone  laid  on  stone  posts, 
with  a  skeleton  hand-rail  to  steady  the  wayfarers, 
led  over  the  smaller  streams,  and  country  folk  trooped 
over  them,  loops  of  little  blue  figures  against  the 
bluest  sky.  At  one  cross-roads,  where  three  bridges 
arched  across  and  pailows  tottered,  we  landed  to 
enjoy  better  the  details  of  all  this  picturesqueness. 
We  looked  in  one  mud-walled,  thatched  farm-house 
where  people  and  pigs  lived  together  in  one  greasy, 
smoke-blackened  room,  with  an  earthen  floor  and  the 
fewest  miserable  furnishings.  The  owner,  incrusted 
with  all  the  dirt  of  his  lifetime,  gave  friendly  greet- 
ing, and  four  women  and  six  children  tumbled  out  to 
look  at  us  with  the  usual  dumfounded,  spellbound, 
bewildered,  and  voiceless  attention  and  interest.  One 
boy  sat  down  on  the  grass  to  stare  at  his  ease  with 
just  the  stolid,  bovine,  ruminant  gaze  of  a  water-buf- 
falo, chewing  the  while  a  long  stick  of  sorghum, 
which  was  probably  his  only  breakfast.  The  farmer 
grubbed  in  his  flooded  bed  of  water-chestnuts  and 
found  us  a  few  ripe  nuts,  and  his  gratitude  when  we 
gave  a  handful  of  cash  in  return  was  pathetic.     A 


IX  A   PEOVINCIAL  YAMUN  321 

duck-farmer  came  poling  his  way  to  fresh  pastures, 
surrounded  by  his  docile  flock,  but  at  sight  of  the 
strange  figures  on  the  high  slab  bridge,  the  duck- 
farmer  was  spellbound,  and  the  three  hundred  odd 
birds  took  fright,  quacked  frantically,  flapped  their 
wings,  and  fled  up  either  bank  in  alarm.  The  shep- 
herd of  birds  launched  out  the  long  bamboo  with 
which  he  was  poling,  and  with  the  crook  at  the  end 
hooked  a  few  ducks  back  through  the  air  to  the 
water,  gave  some  few  exhortatory  quacks  himself, 
and  the  recreants  waddled  back  sullenly  with  angry 
quackings  to  one  another— the  most  diverting  and 
irresistibly  funny  thing  ever  ducks  did. 

Our  sails,  that  staggered  aloft  on  masts  nearly  as 
tall  as  Columbia's  or  Defender's,  came  down  at  each 
bridge,  the  masts  hinged  back,  and  we  just  slipped 
under,  and  then  moved  on  across  the  level  plain, 
where  other  giant  sails  were  moving  in  every  direc- 
tion on  invisible  waters.  We  came  to  the  venerable, 
gray,  battlemented  walls  of  our  city,  skirted  all  its 
tip-tilted  pagoda-towers  of  defense,  afforded  a  water 
pageant  to  its  people,  and  were  then  hurried  into 
chairs  and  borne  away  through  the  same  narrow 
streets  of  all  Chinese  cities— the  same  signs,  the  same 
shops,  the  same  commodities  for  sale,  the  same  arti- 
sans and  workmen  pursuing  their  same  occupations 
as  anywhere  else  in  the  land  of  eternal  monotony. 
Yamun  servants  had  been  sent  to  pilot  our  boats, 
yamun  runners  dropped  to  our  decks  from  the  first 
bridges  to  conduct  the  ceremonies  of  arrival,  and  our 
own  red-tasseled  servant  ran  ahead  of  our  chairs 
with   a  yamun  escort  to  present  our  red  cards   of 


322  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

ceremouy.  We  were  all  supposed  to  be  illustrious 
official  doctors,  since  that  was  the  only  plausible  ex- 
planation to  be  given  to  his  people  for  such  toleration 
of  barbarians  by  an  august,  blue-buttoned,  jeweled 
personage. 

As  the  smart-stepping  chair-bearers  swung  in 
through  the  first  great  gate  of  the  yamun,  a  long  trap- 
door window  fell  and  disclosed  six  pipers  who  began  a 
furious  tooting,  and  a  retainer  in  a  peaked  hat  fired 
three  pistol-shots  as  salute  of  honor.  Tlie  bearers 
paced  on  through  another  gate  to  a  second  court, 
where  the  yamun  runners  or  retainers  were  drawn  in 
crooked  lines  of  honor  on  either  side,  all  arrayed  in 
the  peaked  hats  and  baggy  coats  of  our  sawdust  ring. 
The  next  gateway  was  closed,  painted  across  with  a 
sensational  red,  green,  and  blue,  fire-spitting,  ball- 
chasing  dragon ;  but  the  bearers  walked  on  with  the 
same  swift,  measured  tread  as  if  they  would  batter 
the  gate  open  with  the  chair-poles  or  end  our  proces- 
sion in  a  heap.  At  the  moment  the  first  pole  was 
about  to  touch  the  dragon  panel,  it  parted,  flew  open 
like  magic,  and  we  were  borne  through  a  third  court- 
yard lined  up  with  retainers,  through  another  magic 
dragon  gate  into  a  fourth  court,  where  our  host,  in 
his  best  satins,  and  button,  feather,  and  beads  of  oflS- 
cial  ceremony,  stood  with  his  staff  to  receive  us, 
shaking  his  own  folded  hands  in  the  depths  of  his 
gorgeous  sleeves  as  we  each  emerged  from  the  cur- 
tained chrysalis  of  a  sedan  and  returned  his  cordial 
"  Chin-chin  "  of  welcome.  He  led  the  way  to  the  great 
hall,  seated  us  at  the  blackwood  tables  ranged  down 
each  side,  and  refreshed  us  with  tea  and  sweetmeats, 


IN  A  PROVINCIAL  YAMUN  325 

while  he  made  the  conventional  inquiries  as  to  our 
health  and  the  voyage. 

Then  the  ladies  were  led  to  the  last  dragon  gate, 
which  parted  magically  and  brought  us  facing  a  solid 
screen.  We  rounded  it,  and  saw  the  pretty  tableau  of 
the  Tai-tai  of  the  yamun  and  her  seven  young  sons 
ranged  in  a  row  before  the  bright-red  curtain  that 
concealed  the  doorway  of  her  own  boudoir  or  living- 
room.  The  Tai-tai  stood  on  the  tiniest  of  pointed 
slippers,  and  from  their  tips  to  her  throat  she  was  a 
mass  of  embroidered  satins  of  brilliant,  contrasting 
colors.  Full  trousers  and  skirts,  each  heavily  em- 
broidered, and  coat  upon  coat  weighted  the  slender 
figure,  and  her  blue-black  hair  was  almost  concealed 
with  wing-like  pieces,  butterflies,  pins,  and  clasps  of 
pearls.  A  string  of  finely  cut  ivory  beads  and  phenix 
plastrons  on  the  back  and  front  of  her  outer  coat  de- 
clared her  official  quality,  and  the  fine,  pale-yellow  face 
was  alight  with  an  expression  of  pleasure  that  lent 
emphasis  to  the  cordial,  soft-voiced  greetings.  An 
attendant  lifted  the  screen  curtain,  and  she  led  us 
into  her  lofty,  stone-floored  room,  furnished  with  deep, 
square,  carved  chairs  and  round  center-table,  and  hung 
with  the  gold-lettered  red  scrolls  of  holiday  ornament. 
Tea  was  brought,  and  the  Tai-tai,  swaying  on  her 
stumps  of  feet,  served  each  one  with  her  own  ivory 
chop-sticks  to  fruits  and  cakes  of  many  kinds.  Then 
sweet  champagne,  that  had,  unsuspected,  been  warm- 
ing itself  all  morning  in  the  sun  on  the  fore-deck  of 
our  boats,  was  served,  and  conversation  through  an  in- 
terpreter went  on,  a  long  dialogue  of  direct  questions 
and  answers.     Her  seven  sons,  ranging  from  the  in- 


326  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

fant  in  arms  to  charming  boys  fourteen  and  sixteen 
years  of  age,  were  introduced,  these  larger  boys  hav- 
ing free  range  of  the  women's  reserved  quarter,  and 
not  seeming  out  of  place  there  in  their  long  satin 
robes.  A  cloud  of  maid-servants  hovered  about, 
talked  audibly,  and  seemed  on  a  footing  of  perfect 
equality. 

We  were  shown  the  Tai-tai's  bedroom,  an  adjoining 
stone-floored  apartment,  with  the  same  hard,  carved 
chairs  and  stiff  tables  along  two  walls,  a  mirror  and 
dressing-table  before  the  window,  and  facing  it  a 
monumental  carved  canopy  or  alcove-bed.  The  walls 
were  hung  with  more  vermilion  scrolls,  and  the  bed 
cornice,  set  with  panels  of  "landscape  marble,"  had 
also  coin  trophies  and  tinsel  charms  hung  there  to 
ward  off  evil  spirits,  framed  pictures  and  poems  to  in- 
vite and  detain  the  good  spirits.  The  bed  was  a  hard 
marble  shelf  with  many  thick  blankets  folded  at  the 
farther  side.  Not  a  soft  chair  nor  a  floor-covering, 
not  a  common  comfort,  as  we  consider  such  things, 
was  provided  for  this  gentle,  delicate,  high-bred 
woman,  despite  the  considerable  wealth  of  the  family. 

We  were  prompted  to  urge  the  hostess  to  lay  aside 
her  outer  official  coat,  easily  fatiguing  with  its  weight 
of  splendid  trimming.  We  were  told  to  urge  again, 
when  it  was  put  aside,  and  we  continued  to  urge 
until  fiv^e  successive  garments  had  been  doffed,  and 
the  Tai-tai  moved  her  slight  shoulders  and  sighed 
with  relief;  more  wonder  that  she  had  not  fainted 
with  their  weight  and  warmth  on  that  hot  autumn 
day.  We  were  shown  the  wardrobe,  a  room  hung 
round  with  the  common  silk  garments  of  every-day 


IN  A  PROVINCIAL  YAMUN  327 

wear,  piled  high  with  the  red  trunks  of  her  great 
trousseau,  and  holding  huge  carved  wardrobes  where 
the  winter  wardrobe  and  furred  garments  were  stored. 
Three  maids  had  the  care  of  these  clothes;  another 
brought  out  baskets  where  tray  below  tray  held  the 
Tai-tai's  jewels ;  and  a  fifth  maid,  the  hair-dresser-in- 
chief,  without  warning  or  bidding,  whipped  all  the  pearl 
ornaments  out  of  her  mistress's  hair,  and  showed  us  the 
effect  of  the  different  filigree,  jade,  kingfisher-feather, 
and  other  sets  of  ornaments  in  turn.  The  autumn 
edict  from  Peking  had  just  turned  all  the  chair-covers 
in  the  yamun  to  their  red  winter  side,  put  different 
hats  on  master  and  retainers,  and  relegated  the  Tai- 
tai's  jade  ornaments  to  obscurity  until  the  spring  edict 
should  allow  summer  jewelry  to  be  worn  again. 
There  was  one  dazzling  arrangement  in  hair-dressing 
where  silver,  tinsel,  and  artificial  flowers  were  massed 
in  coronals  almost  as  becoming  as  the  Manchu  coif- 
fure, but  it  was  not  etiquette  for  that  to  remain,  and 
the  pearl  wings  and  pins  were  replaced. 

The  master  came  for  a  short  call,  a  remote  twinkle 
to  be  seen  in  his  eye  as  he  noted  the  commotion  and 
clatter  of  the  women  servants  at  his  daring  intrusion 
when  strange  women  were  there.  He  had  but  just 
left  the  harem  when  shouts  were  heard  beyond  the 
gate,  and  from  behind  the  great  screen  curtain  we 
saw  the  feet  of  chair-bearers  deposit  sedans  and  de- 
part. A  Chinese  lady  in  ceremonial  dress  was  as- 
sisted out,  received  just  within  the  red  curtain,  and 
duly  presented  to  us  as  the  magistrate's  wife.  The 
whole  harem  conversation  was  repeated  for  her  over 
again— ages,  children,  servants,  diseases,  clothes,  the 


328  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

eternal  feminine,  tea-party  topics  of  all  countries. 
Our  strange  garments  and  huge  feet  amused  them, 
but  we  talked  to  them  rather  as  one  would  talk  to 
nice  children ;  for  these  aristocrats  of  the  south  were 
of  far  different  mold  from  our  old  Manchu  Tai-tai 
in  Peking,  she  with  the  ready  questions  concerning 
the  X-rays. 

"We  had  had  two  rounds  of  tea  and  sweets  in  wel- 
come at  eleven  o'clock,  another  round  at  twelve,  a 
fourth  when  this  visitor  came,  a  light  luncheon  at 
one,  and  tea  yet  again  at  two  o'clock.  The  two  ladies 
fell  away  in  a  little  chat  of  their  own,  and  we  looked 
at  albums  of  paintings  the  master  had  sent  in.  The 
ladies  were  plainly  discussing  us,  but  otherwise,  on 
other  days,  yesterday  or  last  week,  what  did  they  have 
to  talk  about,  these  helpless,  crippled  women  with 
their  scores  of  maids,  spending  all  their  lives  on  the 
hard  chairs,  hard  beds,  and  hard  floors  in  these  cheer- 
less rooms,  looking  on  stone  courts  and  blank  walls  ? 
Without  exercise,  incidents,  books,  occupation,  or  any 
social  excitements  save  these  stilted  visits  in  closed 
sedans,  it  seemed  a  dreary  prison  life  at  best,  and  the 
oppressive  idea  made  us  long  to  escape  from  the 
harem's  walls. 

We  sent  a  note  to  the  outer  masculine  world,  and 
the  raspberry-satin-clad  son  of  the  house  came  and 
whispered  the  English  message  given  the  little  par- 
rot :  *'  Foreign  ladies  please  come  my  side  " ;  and  we 
promptly  fled  down  a  side  passage  that  encircled  the 
outer  edges  of  the  court  to  the  master's  apartments. 
It  was  the  men  servants  then  who  were  flustered  at 
such  an  unexpected  irniption,  at  such  an  unknown. 


IN  A   PROVINCIAL  YAMUN  329 

irregular  proceeding  as  women  visitors  penetrating 
to  the  master's  inner  sanctum.  But  we  felt  more  at 
home  there,  and  found  much  more  to  talk  about  than 
in  the  harem  circle.  Our  host  was  visibly  wasted 
and  shrunken,  relieved  of  six  or  eight  coats  of  honor 
at  his  guests'  insistence.  Besides  his  own  consider- 
able treasures,  his  friends  had  lent  him  their  choice 
pieces  for  the  day,  and  the  black  tables  were  covered 
with  bronzes,  porcelains,  and  some  charming  bits  of 
Sung  pottery.  There  was  a  terrestrial  globe  and 
enough  foreign  books  and  seditious  scientific  prints 
from  the  Shanghai  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Chris- 
tian and  General  Knowledge  to  have  sent  him  to  the 
block  in  Peking.  We  had  some  hope  for  China  when 
we  saw  this  official  pursuing  such  studies  under  such 
apparent  difficulties ;  but  less  hope  when  we  learned 
that  these  books  belonged  to  the  other  guest  of  the 
day,  a  man  educated  abroad  with  the  intention  of 
serving  his  government  afterward  indefinitely,  but 
recalled  and  virtually  punished  by  being  kept  wait- 
ing in  idleness,  eating  his  heart  out  in  that  provin- 
cial town  where  everything  was  alien  and  unfriendly. 
Without  hope  of  honors  or  employment,  and  always 
in  danger  of  being  persecuted  or  denounced  to  the 
yamun  by  malicious  literati,  it  was  a  wonderful 
chance  for  him  when  he  found  the  new  governor 
sympathetic  and  interested  in  every  new  and  for- 
eign idea.  Political  history  and  economics,  Henry 
George's  theory  of  land  ownership  and  taxation, 
railroad-building  and  electrical  engineering,  had 
been  the  topics  in  the  governor's  study  all  morning. 
Wlien  that  worthy  welcomed  us,  he  discoursed  as 


330  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

connoisseur  upon  the  old  bits  of  carved  Soochow 
lacquer  laid  out,  and  mourned  witli  us  that  the  lovely 
Foochow  lacquers  were  so  sadly  falling  off  in  this 
decade,  with  this  last  generation  descended  from 
that  artisan  who  learned  the  art  of  lacquer  while  a 
captive  in  Japan  in  Koxinga's  time. 

The  Raspberry  Boy  and  his  brother  the  Blue  Boy 
took  us  for  a  turn  in  the  fantastic  garden  of  the  ya- 
mun,  all  rockwork,  bridges,  and  summer-liouses  with 
moon  and  fan  windows,  abutting  on  the  battlemented 
city  wall,  and  we  returned  to  the  women's  quarters 
for  the  four-o'clock  dinner,  the  feast  to  which  all 
the  little  nibbles  and  sips  of  the  day  had  been  fore- 
runners. It  began  and  ended  with  tea,  and  the  little 
plates  of  hors  d'oeuvres,  watermelon-seeds,  pickled 
almonds,  salted  peanuts,  and  mysteries,  remained  by 
vis  to  the  end.  A  preliminary  bowl  of  shark-fin  soup 
with  egg-curd  was  followed  by  shreds  of  fried  duck, 
and  then  came  pigeon-egg  stew,  from  whose  depths 
my  chop-sticks  brought  up  thin  bits  of  mountain 
mushrooms.  There  were  bacon  fritters,  as  far  as 
hasty  analysis  could  determine,  another  sort  of  stew 
with  mushrooms,  fried  chicken,  almond-cream  cus- 
tard, a  steamy  sponge-cake,  a  stew  of  Japan  shell- 
fish, fresh  fish  fried,  bird's-nest  stew,  sweet  olives, 
another  soup,  another  fish  combination  stew,  a  deadly 
pastry,  innumerable  sweets  and  fruits  and  nuts, 
and  the  final  cup  of  tea.  The  rice-bowls  were  kept 
full  all  the  time  as  a  running  aecomj)animent  to 
the  successive  courses,  and  warm  champagne  was 
poured  in  full  bumpers.  The  Chinese  visitor  set  the 
convivial  example  by  lifting  her  glass,  giving  the 


IN  A  PROVINCIAL  YAMUN  331 

conventional  toast  in  a  "  Chin-chin  Tai-tai ! "  and 
then  clinked  glasses  round,  the  Chinese  ladies  evi- 
dently enjoying  the  warm,  sickly-sweet  stuff.  Tow- 
els wrung  out  in  hot  water  were  passed  at  intervals 
in  lieu  of  finger-bowls,  and  the  chattering  maids 
fanned  us  assiduously. 

When  the  Raspberry  Boy  announced  that  our  chaks 
were  waiting,  we  made  long-drawn  and  profuse 
adieus,  and  bestowed  largess  on  all  the  servants — 
strings  of  cash  rolled  in  red  paper;  the  same  gifts 
were  made  to  our  small  following,  and  a  roll  of  silk 
wrapped  in  red  paper  was  sent  to  the  boats  for  each 
guest.  The  Tai-tai  had  slipped  into  her  ofiicial  coat 
and  beads  to  bid  us  adieu,  and  stood  again  in  tableau 
against  the  red  curtain,  smiling  and  shaking  her  own 
hands. 

In  the  next  court  we  made  formal  speeches,  and 
took  leave  of  our  host,  a  bulky  figure  again  in  all 
his  layers  of  coats,  shaking  his  own  hands  within 
his  big  sleeves,  and  thanking  us  in  most  correct 
phrases  for  the  honor  of  the  visit.  As  the  sedans 
were  carried  out,  the  courts  were  again  lined  with 
retainers,  the  trap-door  fell  again,  the  Jack-in-the- 
box  pipers  piped,  and  the  gunner  fired  three  times. 
The  landing-place  was  blue  with  people,  a  silent, 
motionless,  stonily  staring  multitude.  We  skirted 
the  walls  at  the  sunset  hour,  and  were  soon  in  the 
water  mazes  of  the  flat,  green  plain.  Country  folk 
trooped  along  the  banks  and  over  the  bridges ;  weary 
work-folk  rested  by  their  doors  or  ate  in  strangely 
lighted  interiors.  A  din  and  thumping  on  shore 
called  us  from  the  dinner-table  to  see  a  festival  pro- 


332  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

cession  filing  alongshore  and  up  over  an  invisible 
bridge,  huge  round  glow-worms  of  lanterns  moving 
against  the  stars  and  darkness  above,  and  among  the 
reflected  stars  in  the  water  below.  Poor,  forlorn, 
dirty,  decrepit  old  China  seemed  then  a  land  all  pictur- 
esqueness  and  charm— so  much  could  darkness  and  a 
few  lanterns  do  for  this  pathetic  old  wreck  of  an 
empire. 

The  next  night  we  dined  and  danced  at  a  house  in 
Slianghai  suburbs,  that  might  as  well  have  been  in 
London  suburbs,  save  for  the  rustling,  blue-silk 
servants.  The  company  and  the  talk  were  cosmopoli- 
tan, the  gowns  Parisian,  and  the  day  in  the  yamun 
seemed  a  half-memory  of  something  that  had  hap- 
pened years  ago,  the  yamun  itself  more  than  ten 
thousand  miles  away  instead  of  only  a  few  leagues 
off  in  the  cocoon  country  of  Chekiang, 


XXIII 


THE  LOWER  YANGTSZE 


HE  Yangtsze-kiang,  the  Great  Muddy- 
River  of  China,  which,  by  a  faulty  tra- 
cing of  the  Chinese  characters  represent- 
ing it,  has  enjoyed  such  poetic  English 
equivalents  as  "  Son  of  the  Ocean"  and 
"  Child  of  the  Sea,"  is  one  of  the  greatest  rivers,  and 
its  valley  the  most  densely  populated  and  closely  cul- 
tivated river  basin  of  the  globe. 

Rising  in  northern  Tibet,  on  the  Roof  of  the  World, 
this  "  Girdle  of  China  "  crosses  the  whole  empire  in  its 
three-thousand-mile  course  to  the  sea,  touching  nine 
of  the  richest  provinces,  draining  and  giving  commu- 
nication through  a  region  more  than  six  hundred 
miles  wide,  a  basin  of  six  hundred  thousand  square 
miles,  with  a  population  estimated  at  one  hundred 
and  eighty  millions.  All  of  British  diplomacy  is  alert 
to  protect  British  trade  in  this  her  ''  inalienable 
sphere  of  influence,"  to  maintain  the  ancient  trade 
route  to  India,  Burma,  and  Tibet  against  French  de- 
signs on  Yun-nan— the  Yangtsze  valley  a  Far  Eastern 
storm-center,  with  a  future  Fashoda  somewhere  in  its 
length. 


334  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

The  Yangtsze  has  a  different  name  in  almost  every 
province,  and  pours  a  flood  of  diluted  mud  through 
half  its  valley,  tingciug  the  ocean  for  more  than  a 
hundred  miles  offshore  into  the  really  Yellow  Sea. 
It  has  built  up  the  plain  of  Hu-peh  within  historic 
times,  and  in  five  hundred  years  has  made  the 
thirty-mile-long  Tsung-ming  Island, opposite  Wusung, 
whose  fertile  fields  support  an  incredible  population. 
The  tide  is  felt  three  hundred  miles  above  the  Yang- 
tsze's  mouth ;  it  is  navigable  for  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  sixty  miles,  and  is  never  closed  by  ice. 
It  is  called  the  "  River  of  Fragrant  Tea-fields,"  since 
that  plant,  as  well  as  the  bamboo,  grows  from  Yun- 
nan to  the  sea ;  while  poppy-fields  cover  great  areas 
in  Szechiian,  the  mulbeiTy  flourishes  everywhere,  and 
orange-groves  iu  the  gorges  supply  the  lower  ports. 
When  the  snows  melt  in  Tibet  and  the  monsoon  pours 
its  annual  flood  on  the  watershed,  the  Yangtsze  rises 
eighty  and  one  hundred  feet  at  Chungking,  seventy 
and  eighty  feet  at  Ichang,  and  forty  and  fifty  feet  at 
Hankow,  sweeping  in  a  fierce  flood  from  June  to 
October,  and  then  falling  as  rapidly  as  a  foot  a  day. 

The  British  besieged  and  took  some  of  the  cities  of 
the  Lower  Yangtsze  in  the  opium  war,  and  in  the 
treat}''  of  Tientsin  (1861)  the  ports  of  the  lower  river 
were  opened  to  foreign  trade,  the  upper  ports  being 
opened  by  the  Chefoo  convention  (1876)  and  the  treaty 
of  Shimonoseki  (1895).  A  fleet  of  river  and  ocean 
steamers  maintains  communication  between  Shanghai 
and  Hankow,  six  hundred  miles  from  the  sea,  above 
which  point  smaller  river  steamers  ply  regularly  to 
Ichang,  a  thousand  miles  from  the  sea.     Although 


THE  LOWER  YANGTSZE  335 

the  right  of  steam-navigation  over  the  fourteen  hun- 
dred miles  to  Chungking  was  conceded  at  Shimono- 
seki,  Chinese  obstinacy  and  conservatism  prevented 
its  fulfilment  until  March,  1898,  three  months  after 
which  all  the  internal  waterways  were  open  to  for- 
eign vessels. 

The  large  river  steamers  time  their  leaving  Shang- 
hai so  that  they  may  pass  the  dangerous  shoals  and 
quicksands  of  Lang  Shan  Crossing,  above  Tsung- 
ming  Island,  by  daylight  and  with  a  favorable  tide. 
Leaving  Shanghai  after  midnight,  our  steamer,  the 
WganMng,  was  well  into  the  broad  river  by  break- 
fast-time ;  but,  with  the  Yangtsze  there  seventeen 
miles  wide,  it  was  long  before  shores  or  any  landscape 
features  appeared.  Then  a  pagoda  showed  on  a  dis- 
tant islet,  a  line  of  green  hills  approached  the  river, 
and  pagodas,  forts,  batteries,  and  long-running  walls 
stood  out  against  backgrounds  of  intense  green,  for- 
tifications mounted  with  ten-  and  twelve-inch  Krupp 
guns  at  the  time  of  the  war  with  Japan.  It  was  a 
mild,  soft,  gray  November  day,  half  rainy,  half  misty, 
the  air  sodden  and  saturated  with  the  depressing 
dampness  of  eastern  Asia,  typical  Yangtsze  weather. 
The  steamer  whistled  as  it  neared  a  cluster  of  build- 
ings at  a  creek's  mouth,  and  large,  flat-bottomed 
boats,  with  passengers  and  freight  crowded  indis- 
criminately together,  came  out  and  made  fast  to  the 
steamer's  guards.  All  this  way-cargo,  living  and  in- 
animate, tumbled  or  was  tumbled  in  pell-mell,  with 
uniform  celerity  and  unconcern,  joining  a  confused 
half-acre  of  the  same  damp,  dirty,  ill-favored,  ill- 
smelling  boxes,  bags,  mats,  and  people.     There  were 


336  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

the  same  unpleasant  type  of  countenances  commonest 
at  Shanghai,  the  same  greasy  blue  cotton  or  glazed 
calico  clothes  seen  everywhere  in  the  unsavory  em- 
pire, the  same  frightful  monotony  of  life  and  charac- 
ter among  this  least  attractive  people  of  earth.  The 
cargo  and  passengers  destined  for  the  creek-side  land- 
ing were  hurled  into  the  flatboats  with  as  little  cere- 
mony, with  the  bells  ringing  and  the  boat  in  motion 
before  the  last  pig-tailed  parcel  had  been  shoved  off. 
The  I^ganking  churned  on  through  the  long,  damp, 
dreary  afternoon,  boat-loads  of  common  cargo  and 
common  people  tumbling  off  and  on  the  steamer  as  it 
swung  to  in  the  stream  before  each  town. 

The  lower  deck  was  packed  with  chattering  crea 
tures,  smoking,  eating,  sleeping,  gambling  among  and 
over  their  heterogeneous  belongings— eight  hundred 
of  these  yellow  beings  herded  in  a  space  not  sufficient 
for  two  hundred  white  emigrants  on  the  other  side 
of  the  globe,  a  most  profitable  live  cargo,  moved 
without  handling  or  feeding  or  risks.  The  Xgan- 
J{i)ig\'i  spacious,  spotless  upper  deck  and  cabins  fur- 
nished all  the  comforts,  latest  improvements,  and 
gilded  splendors  one  could  wish  to  find  on  Hud- 
son or  Mississippi  River  boats ;  electric  lights,  lux- 
urious upholstery,  a  piano,  potted  palms,  scattered 
books  and  magazines,  and  a  well-served  table  secur- 
ing one's  content.  Eternal  thrift,  the  total  want 
of  any  fastidious  taste  or  senses,  a  camaraderie  and 
equality,  a  true  democracy  and  fraternity,  unseen 
elsewhere,  often  move  even  rich  and  official  Chi- 
nese to  herd  with  the  commoners  on  the  steerage- 
deck— or  send  their  families  there :  for  I  once  saw  a 


THE  LOWER  YANGTSZE  337 

Chinese  admiral  sprawling  at  his  ease  on  the  silken 
cabin  sofas,  while  his  wives  and  children  went  in  the 
crowded  promiscuity  of  the  steerage.  Unbounded 
disgust  is  felt  by  foreign  captains,  Chinese  stewards, 
and  menials  when  mandarins  appear  in  the  first 
cabin,  with  their  water-  and  opium-pipes,  tribes  of 
servants,  and  mountains  of  small  baggage.  Rules 
of  conduct  in  conspicuous  Chinese  text  are  unheeded, 
and  nothing  can  prevent  their  bringing  on  their  own 
greasy  and  malodorous  foods,  which  they  strew  over 
rich  carpets,  curtains,  and  couches  as  unconcernedly 
as  on  a  yamun's  stone  floor. 

Unfortunately,  it  was  dark  when  we  passed  through 
the  narrow  channel  by  Silver  Island  and  saw  the 
lights  of  Chinkiang  twinkling  on  a  hiUside  and  far 
along  the  river-bank ;  for  this  is  one  of  the  picturesque 
parts  of  the  river,  with  two  landscape  ornaments  of 
sacred  islands  that  have  been  favorite  themes  for 
poets,  painters,  and  gem-carvers  for  centuries.  Silver 
Island  (Tsiao  Shan)  and  Golden  Island  (Kin  Shan), 
which  lie  off  Chiukiang,  are  both  abrupt  rock  masses 
which  Buddhism  sanctified  and  beautified  in  the  long- 
ago.  Both  islands  were  covered  with  temples,  tow- 
ers, terraces,  and  carved  gateways ;  both  were  visited 
by  Ming  and  Manchu  emperors ;  and  the  sounds  of 
gong  and  bell  and  chanting  priests  were  continuous. 
In  Marco  Polo's  time  there  were  two  hundred  priests 
on  Silver  Island,  and  Golden  Island  was  the  depository 
of  an  imperial  library,  the  only  similar  book  collec- 
tions being  at  Peking  and  Haugchow.  Old  pictures, 
precious  jade,  crystal  and  ivory  carvings,  show  in 
miniature  what  the  sacred  islands  were,  for  to-day 

18 


338  CHINA:  THE  LONG-LIVED   EMPIRE 

they  are  desolate  and  in  ruins.  British  forces  occu- 
pied Golden  Island  during  the  siege  of  Chinkiaug  in 
1842,  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  one  of  the  British 
officers  did  not  carry  out  his  intention  of  sending  the 
library  to  the  British  Museum,  since  those  books  and 
the  library  at  Hangchow  were  later  destroyed  by  the 
Taiping  rebels.  The  Taipings  destroyed  temples, 
shrines,  and  sacred  groves,  wreaking  their  wrath 
more  especially  upon  Silver  Island,  because  the  priests 
had  sheltered  an  imperial  official  there.  After  that 
the  American  consul  secured  the  island's  immunity 
by  establishing  his  residence  there,  and  the  *'  flowery 
flag "  or  "  gaudy  banner,"  as  Chinese  call  our  in- 
tricate arrangement  of  colored  stripes  and  pointed 
spots,  flew  from  the  sacred  summit  until  ruined  and 
desolate  Chinkiang  was  freed  from  the  rebels.  Dur- 
ing the  war  with  Japan,  batteries  were  mounted  again, 
and  all  sacredness  would  seem  to  have  fled.  A  few 
priests  maintain  a  tradition  of  Buddhism,  but  the 
grottoes  and  niches  and  groves  no  longer  shelter  saints 
and  hermits  attempting  buddhahood,  and  even  the 
cave  temple  of  the  river-god  who  cliecks  floods  and 
rains  has  lost  vogue  in  this  day  of  dilapidation  and 
disillusionment. 

Chinkiang  has  always  enjoyed  commercial  impor- 
tance from  its  position  at  the  junction  of  the  Grand 
Canal  and  the  Yangtsze.  Besieged  and  bombarded 
by  the  British  in  1842,  captured  by  the  Taiping  rebels 
in  1853,  and  recaptured  by  the  imperialists  in  1857, 
the  city  was  only  a  waste  space  of  ruins  wlien  opened 
to  foreign  trade  in  1858.  As  population  gathered  it 
was  rebuilt,  trade  increased,  and  there  was  monoto- 


THE  LOWER  YANGTSZE  339 

nous  prosperity  until  one  of  those  insensate  anti- 
foreign  riots  occurred  in  1889,  the  mob  attacking, 
looting,  and  destroying  all  the  foreign  buildings  save 
the  Catholic  mission,  and  driving  the  foreign  resi- 
dents to  some  cargo-hulks,  where  they  defended 
themselves  until  taken  off  by  gunboats.  By  one  of 
those  fortunate  accidents  that  just  save  our  foreign 
service  now  and  then,  the  United  States  consul  at 
Chinkiang  was  a  veteran  in  consular  and  Eastern 
service,  whose  courage  and  sturdy  Americanism  were 
a  match  for  the  wiles  of  the  tao-tai,  or  local  governor, 
who  had  short  orders  from  Peking  to  settle  for  the 
damage  wrought.  Other  consuls  accepted  minimum 
sums  for  their  losses,  and  obliged  their  countrymen 
to  do  the  same ;  but  General  Jones  stood  for  ample 
indemnity  or  none,  and  the  meekness  of  the  other 
consuls  in  accepting  any  trifle  "  for  peace'  sake,"  and 
"  lest  it  embarrass  trade  relations,"  only  added  fuel 
to  his  ire.  The  tao-tai  made  several  visits  and  specious 
pleas,  without  General  Jones  abating  one  cash  of  his 
first  demand ;  and  meanwhile  Peking  inquired  of  the 
tao-tai :  "  Have  you  settled  with  those  foreign  devils 
yet  ? "  "  Why  don't  you  pay  those  claims  at  once  ? " 
etc.  The  "river"  was  convulsed  with  accounts  of 
General  Jones's  encounters  with  the  mercenary  tao- 
tai,  and  of  that  final  scene  where  the  bluff  and  belli- 
cose American,  advancing  with  uplifted  forefinger, 
thundered  at  the  tao-tai:  "  Yoii,  sir,  are  the  tao-tai 
of  Chinkiang"  (every  word  fraught  with  superb 
scorn  and  contempt),  "  while  I,  /,  sir,  am  the  Ameri- 
can Consul !  "  This,  delivered  with  a  swelling  breast, 
a  magnificent.  New- World,  broad-continent  gesture, 


340  CHI^sA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

the  mien  and  voice  of  Jove,  made  tlie  trembling  tao-tai 
turn  pale  green  and  cease  his  haggling.  General  Jones 
received  his  full  indemnity,  and  from  that  time  en- 
joyed more  consideration  and  influence  among  the 
Chinese  than  any  other  foreigner  on  the  river.  A 
General  Jones  in  every  port,  and  a  dozen  of  his  dou- 
bles to  represent  the  great  but  feeble  powers  at  Pe- 
king, would  have  awakened  China  long  ago,  and 
possibly  prevented  the  sad  collapse,  the  cool  dismem- 
berment of  the  moribund  empire  that  we  see  to-day. 
As  this  kindly  old  Virginia  gentleman,  with  a  person- 
ality as  lovable  and  truly  Southern  as  that  of  the  im- 
mortal Colonel  Carter  of  Cartersville,  was  one  of  the 
oldest,  ablest,  most  experienced  and  efficient  American 
consuls  in  China  or  the  East,  he  was  the  most  promptly 
removed  by  the  new  administration  in  1897  ;  but  before 
his  successor  could  arrive  and  relieve  him  of  office  and 
honors,  the  rare  old  soul  "  thanked  the  world "  and 
went  where  spoilsmen,  "  plums,"  and  office-seekers 
could  never  rout  him  more.  The  many  picturesque 
incidents  of  his  life  in  Japan  and  China  have  passed 
into  the  fixed  traditions  of  the  East,  where  an  unend- 
ing procession  of  American  consuls  have  come  and 
gone  in  quadrennial  relays  without  the  whole  pass- 
ing company  making  the  same  impress  on  their  times 
as  did  this  one  competent  and  intensely  American 
consul. 

The  Grand  Caual,  which  leads  southward  from 
Chinkiang  to  the  rich  cities  of  Soochow  and  Hang- 
chow  and  the  great  silk  districts  of  China,  continues 
noi-thward  from  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Yangtsze 
to  the  walls  of  Peking.     The  disastrous  floods  of  the 


THE  LOWER  YANGTSZE  341 

Yellow  River  have  rendered  parts  of  the  canal  use- 
less, and  the  tribute  rice,  the  silks  of  the  south,  the 
tea,  and  the  porcelain  do  not  all  go  to  Peking  by 
that  route  now.  Steamships  convey  those  products 
to  Tientsin,  and  the  imperial  red  rice-boats  maintain 
some  show  of  their  old  importance  as  they  creep  up 
the  Pei-ho  to  the  imperial  granaries  of  the  capital. 
A  German  railway  from  Tientsin  to  Chinkiang  may 
soon  parallel  the  canal.  Twelve  miles  within  the 
Grand  Canal's  entrance,  the  great  city  of  Yangchow, 
which  Marco  Polo  governed,  conceals  its  ancient 
walls  and  a  population  estimated  at  from  three  hun- 
dred thousand  to  seven  hundred  thousand.  It  is  a 
greater  city  than  Chinkiang,  a  city  of  great  riches 
and  pride,  of  fine  temples  and  shops,  the  home  of  re- 
tired scholars  and  officials  and  of  the  keenest  and 
most  critical  bargainers  in  all  China— an  unspoiled 
paradise  to  the  curio-hunter. 

The  hills  rise  to  mountains  between  Chinkiang 
and  Nanking,  where  the  river  breaks  through  a  geo- 
logic barrier,  and  besides  the  attractive  scenery  there 
is  much  game  in  the  region.  Wild-boar  hunts  over 
the  harvested  fields  tempt  Shanghai  sportsmen  ever}- 
autumn,  and  the  peasant  proprietors  even  welcome 
foreigners  who  rid  them  of  the  formidable  animals. 

Nanking,  the  southern  capital  of  the  Ming  emper- 
ors, and,  until  Taiping  times,  a  center  of  arts  and 
luxury,  literature  and  learning,  stands  back  from  the 
river-bank,  and  one  sees  only  its  encircling  walls  and 
the  waste  hillside  it  incloses  within  its  protective  bar- 
rier. A  modern  fort  and  barracks  front  the  river-bank, 
but  a  carriage-road,  wlierc  jinrikishas  ply,  leads  five 


342  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

miles  back  to  the  main  city  gate.  The  Taiping  rebels, 
who  started  from  Kuangsi  in  1850,  destroyed  in  turn 
all  the  cities  of  the  Yangtsze,  and  held  their  infamous 
court  at  Nanking  for  ten  years  before  yielding  to  the 
"  Ever-\ictorious  Army,"  which,  raised  and  drilled 
by  the  American  adventurers  Ward  and  Burgevine, 
was  finally  commanded  by  the  English  Major  Gor- 
don. While  Hung-siu-tsuen,  the  "  Heavenly  Prince," 
reigned  at  Nanking,  liis  troops  were  arrayed  in  the 
plundered  silks  of  the  rich  cities  near,  and  they 
reveled  in  loot  and  license.  They  destroyed  the 
great  white  porcelain  pagoda  of  Nanking,  the  most 
beautiful  tower  in  China.  The  mad  extravagance  of 
the  Taiping  court,  the  ruthless  destruction  of  myriad 
smaller  works  of  art,  make  the  tourist  groan  as 
he  prowls  among  the  rubbish  and  junk  of  its  curio- 
shops,  and  hears  of  courtyards  strewn  with  powder 
and  fragments  of  porcelain,  jade,  and  crystal,  of  pic- 
tures and  hangings  trodden  in  mire  and  deluged 
with  the  blood  of  the  slaughtered. 

American  missionaries  maintain  schools  and  a  hos- 
pital, and  a  university  for  the  higher  education  of 
Chinese  youth;  and  the  viceroy,  who  could  never 
spare  a  cash  for  such  innovations,  maintains  a  naval 
school,  batteries  of  Krupp  guns,  and  a  military  estab- 
lishment where  German  instructors  vainly  tried  to 
teach  the  Chinese  how  to  shoot  and  march.  The 
Prussian  drill-sergeants  were  so  freely  and  frequently 
mobbed,  stoned,  and  driven  from  the  parade-ground 
that  a  perpetual  object-lesson  in  civil  war  reigned  at 
the  garrison,  until  the  foreign  officers  resigned.  Yet 
we  read  and  we  read  of  the  Yellow  Peril,  of  the  inex- 


LITTLE  ORPHAN  ISLAND,  IN   THE  TANGTSZE   BELOW   LAKE  TOYANG. 


THE  LOWER  YANGTSZE  345 

haustible  recruiting-ground  that  China  offers,  of  the 
millions,  of  the  masses  of  raw  material  of  armies  that 
wait  only  for  foreign  leadership  ! 

For  another  day  of  travel  up-stream,  the  Yangtsze 
flowed  between  green  hills,  the  river-bed  bordered  with 
giant  reeds  ripened  to  a  rich  dull  yellow  and  harvested 
by  blue-clad  farmers,  who  poled  Lilliputian  boats  in 
among  stalks  twelve,  fifteen,  and  twenty  feet  high. 
Junks  with  dark-brown  butterfly  sails  made  pictures 
on  the  oily  brown  river  that  cut  through  the  East 
and  West  Pillar  Hills,  which  form  the  Gates  of  the 
Yangtsze,  abrupt  heights  carrying  picturesque  forts 
and  walls. 

On  the  thii'd  morning  we  had  reached  the  scenic 
stretch  of  the  Lower  Yangtsze,  and  a  marvelously  clear, 
soft,  rain-washed  atmosphere,  flooded  with  early  yel- 
low sunlight,  made  every  contour  and  color-tint  tell. 
Quaint  fa.rm-houses  beneath  spreading  trees,  ancestral 
tombs  like  small  temples,  black  cattle  browsing  on 
green  meadows  or  wandering  beside  gigantic  reeds, 
made  pleasing  pictures  of  rural  China.  There  were 
mountains  on  each  side,  and  where  the  river  came 
through  a  narrow  gorge  the  pinnacle  rock  of  the  Lit- 
tle Orphan  (Siau-ku-Shan)  stood  in  the  midst  of  the 
river,  a  fantastic  two-story  pagoda  topping  the  cliff 
that  rose  sheer  three  hundred  feet  from  the  water.  A 
great  stretch  of  "chow-chow  water"  about  a  rocky 
point  drew  flocks  of  birds  to  fish  in  the  swift,  white- 
capped  stream,  and  a  few  gorged  and  sleepy  cormo- 
rants blinked  by  their  nests  on  the  Little  Orphan's 
sides.  The  steeper  front  of  this  islet  facing  up-stream 
is  built  over  with  temples  and  monastery  walls,  which 


346  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

fit  into  the  great  rock  mass  as  if  a  part  of  it,  red  bal- 
conies and  roofs  fiu'uishiug  the  one  high  note  of  color. 
The  season's  high-water  mark  is  traced  in  a  muddy 
band  at  the  base  of  this  tiny  Mount  St.  Michel,  and 
one  with  difficulty  picks  out  the  lines  of  staircases  and 
galleries  cut  in  the  rock,  by  which  the  lone  friars 
mount  to  their  aery.  The  shrines  are  neglected  and 
dilapidated,  the  priests  few  and  poor,  and  although 
once  richly  endowed  by  an  emperoi*'s  mother,  with 
souvenir  poems  cut  in  the  everlasting  limestone  as 
record  of  illustrious  and  contributing  visitors,  reve- 
nues are  now  scant  and  votaries  far  between. 

Legends  cling  as  thickly  as  the  vines  around  this 
picturesque  rock  which  Buddhism  beautified  in  the 
early  centuries.  Tradition  tells  of  a  woman  swept 
away  in  a  flood  and  cast  on  this  rock,  who  pei'force 
remained,  fed  by  attendant  cormorants,  until  pious 
river  folk,  regarding  hers  as  a  holy  life,  souglit  the 
orphan's  intercession  with  the  gods.  Another  tells  of 
a  whole  family  drowned  by  a  capsized  boat,  save  two 
small  children,  whom  a  big  frog  put  on  his  back  and 
swam  away  with  toward  Lake  Poyang.  The  little 
orphan,  grieving  and  comfortless,  threw  himself  from 
the  frog's  back  and  was  drowned,  afterward  rising  as 
this  solid  rock  memorial  in  the  river  gorge.  The 
other  orphan,  grieving  at  his  second  loss,  leaped  from 
the  frog's  back  as  he  entered  Lake  Poyang,  and  the 
Big  Orphan  Island  stands  as  his  monument.  More 
fanciful  still  is  the  legend  of  the  lone  fisherman,  who, 
diving  for  a  lost  anchor,  found  a  river-nymph  asleep 
on  its  fluke.  Stealing  her  tiny  shoes,  he  rudely  tripped 
the  anchor  and  sailed  away  for  Lake  Poyang.     The 


THE  LOWER  YANGTSZE  347 

angry  naiad  pursued  him,  and  he  threw  back  one 
slipper,  which  turned  to  stone  on  the  spot.  The  naiad 
still  pursuing,  he  threw  away  the  other  shoe,  which 
shows  in  mammoth  outlines  as  the  Shoe  Rock  of  Ad- 
miralty charts. 

The  provinces  of  Anhui  and  Kiangsi  meet  on  the 
south  shore  of  the  Little  Orphan  Gorge,  and  twenty 
miles  beyond  one  looks  down  a  narrow  water-corri- 
dor to  Lake  Poyang,  the  tapering  mass  of  Big  Or- 
phan Island  finished  with  a  fine  needle  of  a  pagoda 
filling  the  middle  distance.  The  city  of  Hu-kau,  or 
"  Lake's  Mouth,"  a  picturesque,  red-roofed  and  white- 
walled,  almost  Spanish-looking  place,  balances  on  the 
edge  of  steep  cliffs,  at  the  base  of  which  flows  the 
river  of  clear  water  from  the  lake.  A  fine  old  yamun 
and  fort  at  the  edge  of  the  town,  and  a  fortified  monas- 
tery, with  rows  of  ascending  and  overlapping  gables 
and  roofs  and  walls,  held  by  a  truculent,  swash-buck- 
ling company  of  priests  to  whom  all  river  folk  give  a 
wide  berth  and  bad  name,  tempt  a  visit  for  the  sake 
of  the  picturesque ;  but  not  the  customs  commissioner 
at  Kiukiang,  nor  any  European  there,  had  ever  vis- 
ited Hu-kau  or  the  militant  monks,  to  tell  me  any 
more. 

Beyond  the  clear  river.  Lake  Poyang  stretched 
away  in  placid  blue  and  pearly  distance,  a  mirage  of 
islands  showing  in  remotest  azure.  "  I  spread  my 
sail  to  enter  on  the  mirror  of  the  sky,"  sighed  Li 
Tai  Peh,  and  there  are  poets'  groves  and  classic  vales 
along  the  lake  more  celebrated  in  verse  than  any 
other  in  China.  It  is  a  sacred  lake,  too,  with  state 
worship  paid  its  spirits,  sacrifices  and  offerings  made 


348  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

when  the  Emperor's  annual  epistle  to  the  genius  of 
the  lake  is  read  and  burned  at  the  chief  temple. 
The  choicest  tea  districts  of  China  slope  from  its 
shores  and  tributaries,  and  the  great  potteries  of 
King-te-chen  have  their  port  and  market  at  Jao- 
chau,  on  the  east  shore  of  Foy&ng.  The  potteries, 
forty-five  miles  up  the  river  from  Jao-chau,  date  from 
earliest  times,  the  famous  imperial  factories  estab- 
lished by  the  Ming  emperors  in  the  sixteenth  century 
being  but  a  small  ward  in  the  great  industrial  city 
of  a  half-million  people  that  stretched  for  three  miles 
along  its  river-bank.  All  the  materials  for  porcelain- 
making,  the  kaolin  and  petuntze,  exist  in  the  hills 
about  the  city,  which  for  centuries  was  one  of  the  four 
great  marts  of  China.  Chinese  records  tell  of  and  Jes- 
uit priests  have  written  of  King-te-chen  in  its  days  of 
greatness,  when  inspired  workmen  were  producing  the 
pieces  which  have  been  the  delight  and  despair  of  the 
Western  world  for  three  centuries,  Dresden,  Sevres, 
and  Delft  factories  being  founded  only  to  imitate  them. 
With  the  rapid  decay  of  all  the  arts,  the  utter  and 
complete  degeneration  of  the  Chinese  people  in  this 
century,  the  standards  of  King-te-chen  had  fallen 
low,  when  the  destruction  of  the  cit}'  and  wholesale 
slaughter  of  the  potters  by  the  Taiping  rebels  gave 
the  death-blow  to  the  ceramic  art  in  China.  Although 
King-te-chen  has  been  partly  rebuilt  and  work  re- 
sumed at  some  five  hundred  kilns,  the  wares  are  of 
the  most  common  and  vulgar  sort,  coarse  travesties 
of  the  miracles  of  beauty  and  skill  that  used  to  come 
from  its  furnaces. 

The  Jesuits  visited   the  potteries   freely  for  two 


THE  LOWER  YANGTSZE  351 

centuries,  often  by  imperial  command,  and  many 
triumphs  of  the  kiln— the  wonderful  "rose  of  gold" 
{famille  rose)  tints  and  the  intense,  clear  ruby-red 
glaze  of  the  later  sang-de-bceuf,  all  known  as  "  mis- 
sionary colors"— -were  due  to  their  advice.  Pfere 
d'EntrecoUes,  in  the  "  Lettres  Edifiantes,"  described 
King-te-chen  at  the  height  of  its  greatness,  with  de- 
tails of  the  processes  employed,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Sevres  workmen. 

King-te-chen  people  are  rough  and  unruly,  vexing 
their  mandarins  out  of  all  reason,  striking  and  rioting 
at  all  seasons,  and  giving  hostile  reception  to  any 
stranger  who  may  show  his  head.  A  few  years  ago  a 
Boston  and  an  Australian  tourist  went  up  to  the  pot- 
teries in  winter  and  had  an  interesting  visit  without 
molestation;  but  when  M.  Scherzer,  the  late  French 
consul  at  Hankow,  attempted  to  visit  King-te-chen, 
at  the  request  of  his  government,  in  the  interests  of 
the  national  factory  at  Sevres,  every  obstruction  was 
put  in  his  way  before  and  after  starting.  The  pro- 
vincial officials  warned  him  of  the  ugly  and  hostile 
spirit  of  the  rough  potters,  of  the  assaults  and  indig- 
nities sure  to  befall  him,  and  insisted  that  he  should 
visit  the  factories  in  a  closed  chair  at  night.  Even 
then  he  was  stoned  and  roughly  used  before  he  got 
away,  the  whole  demonstration  arranged  by  the  man- 
darins to  discourage  foreigners  from  visiting  interior 
towns.  During  strikes  of  the  potters  in  1896,  troops 
were  called  out  to  settle  the  differences  between  labor 
and  capital,  and  there  was  great  loss  of  life  before  the 
unruly  ones  could  be  made  to  return  to  their  work. 

The  great  trade  route  to  southern  China  ascends 


352  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

the  river  at  the  head  of  the  lake  and  crosses  over  the 
Mei-ling  or  Plum-blossom  Pass,  "the  throat  of  the 
north  and  south  of  China,"  and  seems  as  well  used 
now  as  in  earlier  days  before  open  ports  and  steam- 
navigation.  This  overland  route  to  Canton  offers  a 
most  attractive  house-boat  and  walking  tour  to  a 
traveler,  but,  save  for  Abbe  Hue  and  the  missionaries, 
few  Europeans  have  attempted  it.  In  the  great  days 
of  the  East  India  Company,  and  when  Canton  was 
the  only  port  open  to  foreign  trade,  the  black  tea  and 
the  choicest  green  teas  went  that  way  from  Anhui 
and  Kiangsi.  Until  1898  steam-navigation  was  pre- 
vented from  resorting  to  Lake  Poyang,  and  the  offi- 
cials refused  to  allow  steam-launches  to  tow  junks  or 
rafts  on  the  squally  and  dangerous  lake,  lest  cargoes 
reach  their  destination  too  quickly  and  ^'  spoil  busi- 
ness"—the  governor  at  Nanchang  keeping  a  steam- 
launch  himself,  however,  to  tow  his  own  house-boats 
and  his  timber-rafts.  The  Detroit,  U.  S.  N.,  made  a 
tour  of  the  lake  during  the  high  water  of  1896,  creat- 
ing the  greatest  sensation  among  simple  rustics  and 
irate  officials.  Free  navigation  of  all  internal  water- 
ways was  officially  conceded  in  1898,  but  the  mandarins 
are  passed  masters  in  the  art  of  delaying  and  blocking. 


XXIV 

THE   RIVER   OF   FRAGRANT   TEA-FIELDS 

lUKIANG,  in  the  shadow  of  the  lion  bulk 
of  Lien-shan,  is  four  hundred  and  forty- 
five  miles  from  Shanghai,  and  presents  a 
long  gray  crenelated  wall  to  the  river, 
along  the  bank  of  which  continues  the 
foreign  settlement,  with  its  broad  bund,  its  rows  of 
shade-trees,  the  imposing  French  mission  buildings, 
consulates,  important  hongs  or  mercantile  houses,  and 
residences. 

It  suffered  sadly  in  Taiping  times,  but  has  recovered 
and  become  again  the  green-tea  and  porcelain  mart 
of  the  river.  From  the  floating  hulk,  from  which  one 
lands,  the  bund  is  lined  to  the  city  gates  with  peddlers 
crouched  behind  their  baskets  of  cheap  porcelain,  hide 
ous  things  in  form  and  color,  unpleasant  to  sight  and 
touch,  the  bargains,  rejects,  and  refuse  lots  of  King- 
te-chen  kilns.  Shops  within  the  city  show  the  same 
screaming  atrocities  in  pigments  and  glaze,  shameful 
travesties  of  the  old  designs,  woeful  debasements  of 
uncomprehended  European  ideas.  There  are  attempts 
at  imitations  of  old  wares  that  make  one  long  for  a 

353 


354  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED   EMPIRE 

destroying  hammer— liawtliorn  pieces  whose  crude 
blue  is  that  of  the  street-dyers'  dirtiest  indigo  wash ; 
medallion  bowls  whose  thick,  painty  yellow  is  far  from 
the  pure  jonquil  tints  of  even  Tao  Kwang's  time; 
would-be  coral  reds  that  are  dingy  brick-dust  hue,  and 
smudgy  reds  that  are  far  removed  from  the  old  pitted, 
clotted  sang-de-boeufs  or  the  later  pure  ruby-red  Jesuit 
glaze,  the  glory  of  the  eighteenth  century  at  King-te- 
chen.  Of  new  ideas  there  are  snuff -bottles,  small  tea- 
pots, and  pieces  for  the  writing-table  molded  in  relief, 
with  a  pale,  poison-green  glaze,  a  related  yellow,  and  an 
unhappy  blue  that  are  color  novelties  due  to  European 
laboratories,  cheap  imported  pigments  having  helped 
on  the  ceramic  degradation  of  King-te-chen.  There 
are  a  few  careful  counterfeiters  of  the  old  wares  work- 
ing somewhere  in  King-te-chen,  but  the  nearer  one 
gets  to  their  workrooms  the  less  is  known  of  this  fraud- 
ulent art,  as  their  output  does  not  seek  the  local  mar- 
ket, but  goes  to  dealers  in  Shanghai,  Peking,  and  Hong- 
kong, where  in  silk-lined  teak-wood  boxes  it  catches 
the  European  eye.  The  cleverest  approaches  to  old 
King-te-chen's  triumphs  are  those  made  in  Japan,  the 
souls  of  certain  old  Ming  and  early  Manehu  master 
potters  reincarnated  in  those  wizard  ceramists  at  Ota 
and  Kioto. 

To  visit  King-te-chen  and  see  even  the  decay  of  its 
great  art  was  the  definite  errand  I  had  set  myself  in 
China  that  year;  but  the  nearer  I  drew  to  King-te- 
chen,  the  vaguer  the  whole  subject  grew.  The  hideous 
china-shops  in  Kiukiang  told  little  that  one  wanted  to 
know,  and  Kiukiang  shopkeepers  seemed  to  know  less. 
There  were  no  serious  amateurs  of  porcelain  among 


THE  EIVER   OF  FRAGRANT  TEA-FIELDS      355 

the  foreign  residents,  but  the  resident  physician,  the 
one  most  interested  in  ancient  art,  who  found  his 
delight  in  bronzes,  admitted  having  acquired  a  few 
plates  by  accident.  I  shall  not  soon  forget  the  effect 
on  that  dreary  day  when  I  passed  from  his  hallway, 
filled  with  interesting  bronzes,  and  the  opening  of  the 
drawing-room  door  was  like  a  burst  of  sunshine— a 
drawing-room  the  wall-spaces  of  which  glowed  with 
great  plates  and  plaques  of  imperial  yellow,  each  disk 
a  glory  of  the  purest  daffodil  glaze,  manufactured 
during  this  or  the  preceding  Emperor's  reign,  and 
showing  that  the  achievements  of  King-te-chen  could 
be  repeated  when  the  Emperor  wills. 

*'  Yes,  you  can  go  to  King-te-chen,  if  you  are  help- 
lessly bent  on  it,"  said  the  kindly  doctor.  ''  You  must 
have  a  special  passport  and  a  military  escort  from  the 
viceroy,  and  he  will  take  weeks  to  grant  it,  and  then 
send  word  ahead  to  have  you  scared  off;  and  the 
escort  will  probably  alarm  you  enough  at  sight.  How- 
ever, you  could  get  a  junk  here,  and  with  a  hulk-man 
from  one  of  the  hongs  to  be  responsible  for  the  crew, 
you  would  be  safe  enough  to  Jao-chau,  where  the 
French  mission  and  convent  would  take  you  in.  The 
priests  can  give  you  every  information,  get  you  a  guide 
and  small  boat  for  the  river  trip ;  but  the  potters  are 
a  very  bad  lot.  There  is  little  to  see,  and  they  won't 
let  you  see  it— that  is,  see  it  peaceably  and  intelli- 
gently, as  you  might  expect  to  see  potteries  in  Japan. 
The  game  is  not  worth  the  candle.  Take  my  advice 
and  stay  away.  Come  with  me  to  the  American  mis- 
sion, and  maybe  the  ladies  there  can  arrange  for  you 
to  visit  the  yamun  of  the  official  who  has  transmitted 


356  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

the  Peking  orders  to  the  potteries  and  passed  upon 
all  the  imperial  palace  porcelains  for  these  thirty 
years.  His  yamun  is  crammed  with  porcelains,  and 
he  could  tell  you  more  about  King-te-chen  than  you 
could  find  out  by  going  there." 

It  was  a  long,  chilly  ride  across  town  to  the  mis- 
sion, through  a  labyrinth  of  narrow  streets  where  men 
in  high  boots  with  hobnailed  soles  clamped  noisily 
over  the  flagstones,  holding  up  their  skirts  with  both 
hands,  and  wearing  flannel  hoods  that  fell  in  long 
capes  over  their  shoulders.  Waste  places  told  where 
some  temple  or  yamun  had  stood  before  the  Taipings' 
sad  havoc.  When  we  reached  the  mission,  the  one 
who  knew  the  porcelain  mandarin's  family  best  was 
absent,  and  in  any  event  it  would  have  been  a  matter 
of  days  to  arrange  to  visit  the  wives  of  the  family  and 
talk  ceramics  to  the  master,  who  annually  orders  and 
critically  inspects  some  forty  thousand  taels'  worth  of 
porcelains,  made  for  the  Peking  palace.  The  wives 
of  this  ceramic  grandee  were  not  to  be  called  upon 
without  warning  b}^  any  casual  stranger,  nor  in  hap- 
hazard quarter-hours  by  any  old  friend,  either.  Time 
must  be  given  to  prepare  things  in  the  women's  quar- 
ter; time  to  smoke  and  drink  tea  with  the  idea;  time 
for  the  women  to  have  their  hair  built  up  in  elaborate 
designs  and  their  best  clothes  donned— a  dozen  suc- 
cessive layers  of  best  clothes,  so  that  they  may  gra- 
ciously comply  with  a  visitor's  insistence  that  the 
hostess  shall  lay  aside  her  top-coat  of  ceremony,  and 
comply  again  and  again  until  she  is  peeled  of  tlie  dozen 
layers  of  silk,  brocade,  satin,  and  crape.  Steamers 
and  seasons  may  come  and  go,  but  Chinese  etiquette 


THE  RIVER  OP  FRAGRANT   TEA-FIELDS       357 

demands  time,  and  more  time ;  and  so  I  never  saw  the 
glories  of  that  yamun,  what  models  and  duplicates  of 
imperial  porcelains  were  hoarded  there,  the  rejected 
pieces  with  imperceptible  flaws  and  imaginary  defects, 
and  all  the  private  imperial  marks. 

The  foreign  settlement  of  Kiukiang  is  one  of  the 
many  "  ovens  of  China,"  the  thermometer  often  mark- 
ing 102°  and  107°,  and  this  heat  continuing  in  a  heavy, 
motionless,  damp,  and  exhausting  atmosphere  for 
days  at  a  time  during  the  midsummer  weeks,  when 
commercial  life  is  busiest.  The  tea  season  opens  at 
the  end  of  April,  and  the  choicest  teas  of  all  China, 
growing  in  the  hilly  regions  around  Lake  Poyang, 
are  marketed  at  Kiukiang.  Kiangsi,  like  Anhui,  was 
formerly  a  great  green-tea  province,  and  much  of  its 
crop  was  carried  over  the  Mei-ling  Pass  and  sold  to 
foreign  traders  at  Canton.  As  more  and  more  black 
tea  was  demanded  with  the  increasing  intelligence 
and  taste  of  barbarian  tea-drinkers,  more  and  more 
black  tea  was  made ;  but  it  was  not  until  Mr.  Robert 
Fortune  had  made  his  personal  visit  to  all  the  tea  dis- 
tricts of  China  in  1845  that  it  was  known  that  the 
black  and  green  teas  of  commerce  came  from  the 
same  bushes,  the  difference  lying  in  the  different 
methods  of  curing  the  leaf. 

Kiukiang,  which  was  at  first  the  great  green-tea 
port,  shipped  230,307  piculs  ^  of  tea  in  189G,  of  which 
only  38,793  piculs  were  green  tea.  In  1897  the  tea 
shipments  reached  a  total  of  192,942  piculs,  of  which 
38,734  piculs  were  green  tea.     The  famous  Moning, 

1  A  pieul  weighs  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  pounds  avoir- 
dupois. 
19 


358  CHINA:    THE  I.ONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

Moyune,  or  Wuning  teas,  the  Ening,  Kaisow,  Ning- 
chow,  and  Keemuug  teas,  are  grown  within  five  days' 
journey,  or  one  hundred  miles,  of  Kiukiang,  and  na- 
tive buyers  go  to  those  chosen  valleys  and  hillsides 
when  the  first  leaves  open,  and  buy  the  standing 
crops  for  the  great  British  and  Russian  exporting 
firms  at  the  river  ports.  One  Russian  firm,  lately 
removed  from  Hankow,  manufactures  brick-tea  for 
the  Siberian  market,  and  ^'tablet-tea"  of  the  finest 
green  leaves  compressed  into  thin  cakes  grooved  in 
divisions  like  chocolate,  an  article  of  luxury  for 
fastidious  travelers  and  campaigners  in  European 
Russia. 

The  British  concession  holds  the  little  foreign  set- 
tlement of  Europeans,  and  farther  up  the  river-bank 
is  a  low  mud-flat,  inundated  every  year,  which  was 
conceded  as  an  American  settlement,  but  never  used, 
as  the  American  mission  establishment  is  in  the 
heart  of  the  native  city.  The  great  barrier  of  Lien- 
shan,  which  shuts  off  the  south  wind  in  summer,  is 
one  reason  for  the  excessive  and  sickening  heat  of 
Kiukiang ;  and  the  American  missionaries,  who  have 
been  pioneers  in  such  exploration  and  discovery  of 
available  health  retreats  near  their  field  of  work  in 
both  China  and  Japan,  were  first  to  utilize  Lien-shan 
itself,  and  find  high,  cool  plateaus  and  valleys  where 
they  could  buy  useless  and  neglected  land  cheaply, 
and  put  up  summer  homes.  Their  primitive  camp  has 
grown  to  a  considerable  resort,  and  Kuling,  at  an 
elevation  of  three  thousand  feet,  is  refuge  and  sana- 
toritim  for  all  the  heated  Yangtsze  valley  settlements. 
It  is  only  ten  miles  up  a  steep  mountain  road  to  the 


THE   RIVER  OF  FRAGRANT   TEA-FIELDS       359 

cool,  wind-swept  valleys  of  summer  delight,  while  in 
winter,  frost  and  light  snow  offer  tonic  and  cure  to 
malaria-  and  fever-worn  systems. 

The  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven  mile  reach  of 
river  between  Kiukiang  and  Hankow  is  justly  lauded 
as  one  of  the  fine  scenic  stretches  of  the  lower  river, 
the  Yangtsze  there  cutting  through  a  range  of  lime- 
stone hills  that  divide  it  into  many  lake-like  stretches, 
richly  weathered  cliffs  rising  from  the  water,  and  green 
hills  running  in  overlapping  ridges.  The  Yangtsze 
was  fast  subsiding  in  that  last  week  of  November,  and 
navigation  becoming  safer  and  easier  as  the  banks 
and  landmarks  emerged  from  the  yellow  flood,  and 
the  regular  channels  were  defined.  An  Odessa  tea- 
steamer  bound  down  from  Hankow  had  touched  on 
the  flats  above  Kiukiang  a  few  days  before,  and  with 
all  efforts  the  cargo  could  not  be  lightered  fast  enough 
to  offset  the  falling  river,  nor  could  the  strongest 
ocean  tugs  dislodge  her  from  the  bed  of  soft,  sticky 
mud.  Coming  down-stream  six  weeks  later,  we  saw 
the  ship  standing  high  and  dry  an  eighth  of  a  mile 
back  from  the  water,  shored  up  as  in  a  dry-dock, 
roofed  over,  and  furnished  with  outer  stairways,  like 
pictures  of  ships  in  the  Arctic. 

Stranger  things  yet  happen  along  this  river  when 
all  the  landmarks  and  boundaries  are  submerged,  and 
some  of  the  riverine  incidents  match  anything  from 
the  ''Peterkins"  or  a  comic  opera.  One  year  a  pas- 
senger-steamer found  itself  aground  in  a  rice-field  far 
from  the  river-bank,  and  the  water  fast  subsiding. 
The  rice-farmer  raged  violently,  talked  of  trespass  and 
ground-rent,  forbade  any  injury  to  his  property  by 


360  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

trench-digging,  and  finally  forced  the  ship-owners  to 
buy  his  field  as  a  storage-place  for  the  vessel  until  the 
next  year's  flood  should  release  it.  Then  the  river 
rose  in  a  sudden  and  unparalleled  after-flood,  and 
floated  away  the  impounded  ship.  Meanwhile,  a  war- 
junk  which  had  been  sent  for  to  quell  the  riotous  peo- 
ple ran  aground  in  another  field  while  seeking  the 
besieged  ship,  and  the  mad  country  folk,  cheated  of 
their  winter  prey  and  profits,  set  upon  the  dread 
engine  of  war  "with  pitchforks,  drove  off  the  braves 
and  the  commander  of  the  battle-ship,  looted  the  junk 
of  every  portable  object,  and  made  winter  fuel  of  its 
timbers. 

Hankow,  the  great  tea-market  of  China,  and  its  com- 
panion cities  of  Hanyang  and  Wuchang,  six  hundred 
miles  up-stream  from  Shanghai,  together  present  one 
of  the  greatest  assemblages  of  population  in  China. 
Abbe  Hue,  who  passed  this  way  in  1845  and  wrote  the 
most  interesting  and  still  useful  travelers'  book  about 
China,  estimated  the  combined  population  of  the  three 
great  cities  at  eight  million,  and  drew  amazing  pictures 
of  the  crowded  river  life  of  the  Han  and  Yangtsze,  a 
floating  population  depleted  by  thousands  in  the  miles 
of  burning  junks  when  the  Taiping  rebels  got  their 
first  taste  of  blood  and  plunder  in  the  destruction  of 
the  three  cities.  For  half  the  year  the  Yangtsze  runs 
at  the  foot  of  a  forty-foot  stone  embankment  where 
broad  flights  of  steps  lead  up  to  the  park,  or  bund,  of 
the  British  concession,  a  model  foreign  settlement  ex- 
tending from  the  walls  of  the  native  city  for  three 
quartei-s  of  a  mile  along  the  river-bank.  For  the  rest 
of  the  year  the  Yaugtsze  rises  higher  and  higher, 


.^t^ 


THE  EIVER  OF  FRAGRANT  TEA-FIELDS       363 

until  it  often  overflows  the  parapet  and  the  great  es- 
planade, the  settlement  streets  and  the  race-course 
being  navigable  by  small  boats  for  weeks  at  a  time. 
Since  the  opening  of  the  port  in  1861  this  British  con- 
cession, with  its  smooth,  clean  streets,  shade-trees,  and 
flower-beds,  has  been  an  object-lesson  in  municipal 
order,  wholly  thrown  away  on  the  Chinese  wallowing 
in  the  filth  of  the  native  city.  Only  the  magnificent, 
red-turbaned  Sikh  police  have  really  impressed  the 
natives,  and  with  their  splendid  scorn  and  contempt 
of  the  yellow  race,  these  men  from  the  Panjab  have 
maintained  order,  in  fact  the  most  serious  decorum, 
in  the  settlement.  The  Chinese  have  conceded  land 
along  the  river-bank  adjoining  the  British  concession 
for  a  Russian  settlement,  and  beyond  that  tracts  for 
French  and  German  settlements,  which,  when  em- 
banked and  improved,  will  give  the  great  foreign  city 
of  the  future  a  continuous  bund  over  three  miles  in 
length. 

Hankow,  so  long  the  chief  source  of  supply  of  Brit- 
ish tea-drinkers,  with  fifteen  or  twenty  tea-steamers 
in  port  at  a  time  loading  for  London,  has  undergone 
a  change  in  this  decade.  As  Chinese  teas  deteriorated 
in  quality  and  tea-farmers  became  more  careless  and 
dishonest,  India  and  Ceylon  teas  began  to  win  favor, 
and  with  the  enormous  increase  of  production  in  those 
two  British  dependencies,  Chinese  tea  has  lost  its 
place  in  the  British  market,  furnishing  only  one  ninth 
of  England's  import  in  1896.  At  that  same  time 
began  the  general  awakening  of  Russia.  At  Hankow 
the  Russian  has  come,  and  to  stay,  and  the  sliadow  of 
the  Muscovite  is  over  it  all.     The  Russian  is  not  only 


364  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

established  at  the  gates  of  China,  but  also  at  its  very 
heart,  the  invasion  and  absorption  being  as  remark- 
able in  this  British  settlement  at  Hankow  as  anywhere 
in  Korea  or  Manchuria.  Hankow  is  fast  becoming  a 
Russian  city  or  outpost,  a  foothold  soon  to  be  a  strong- 
hold in  the  valley  of  the  Yangtsze,  which  China  has 
given  her  word  shall  never  be  alienated  to  any  power 
but  England.  Some  alarmists  may  even  view  the  Si- 
berian merchants  at  Hankow  as  emissaries,  like  those 
armed  Russian  monks  who  first  established  them- 
selves in  the  Caucasus  and  Asia  Minor  in  stronghold 
monasteries.  Although  the  Russians  have  their  o\vn 
concession  at  Hankow,  they  do  not  care  to  build  upon 
it  and  live  there,  amenable  then  to  Russian  laws  and 
consular  jurisdiction,  to  Russian  restrictions  and  es- 
pionage ;  and  the  consulate  and  a  few  warehouses 
were  the  only  buildings  on  the  Russian  concession  in 
1896.  The  Russians  prefer  the  laws  and  the  order  of 
the  British  concession,  crowding  in  upon  it  at  every 
opportunity,  competing  for  any  house  that  comes 
into  the  market,  and  building  closely  over  former 
lawns  and  garden-spaces.  They  compete  with  and  out- 
bid the  few  British  tea-merchants  who  remain  in  these 
days  of  active  Russian  trade  aggression.  Only  one 
tea-steamer  took  a  cargo  to  London  in  1896 ;  two 
more  British  firms  closed  out  and  left  Hankow  that 
year ;  and,  still  more  significant,  only  one  pony  showed 
the  colors  of  the  one  British  racing-stable  at  the 
autumn  races.  In  the  retail  shops  prices  are  quoted 
and  bills  made  out  as  often  in  rubles  as  in  taels  or 
dollars,  and  the  Russians  have  gradually  assumed  an 
air  of  ownership,  of  seigniorial  rights,  as  complete  as 


THE   RIVER   OF   FRAGRANT   TEA-FIELDS       365 

if  they  held  the  lease  or  diplomatic  deeds  to  the  place 
for  ninety-nine  years. 

This  great  tea-market  of  foreign  Hankow  is  a  city 
of  six  weeks  only,  the  heads  of  the  great  hongs,  or 
their  managers,  occupying  their  residences  from  the 
first  of  May  to  the  middle  of  June  each  year.  Leaf- 
teas  are  fired  and  shipped  untU  September  and  even 
later,  and  brick-tea  is  made  until  January,  but  the 
choice  tea  is  all  looked  to  in  those  few  weeks.  For 
that  first  quality  the  Russians  buy  only  the  first 
"flush,"  or  crop  of  young  leaves  unfolding  at  the  tips 
of  the  new  twigs  of  the  evergreen  cameDia-bush  each 
April.  These  pekoe  and  souchong  "  leaves  of  the  sec- 
ond moon "  are  carefully  picked  by  hand,  while  the 
next  crop  of  tougher  leaves  is  cut  with  a  knife,  and  at 
the  third  and  fourth  gleanings  the  knife  takes  whole 
twigs,  woody  stems  as  well  as  leaves.  The  first  crop 
of  pale,  downy  leaflets  is  cured,  or  put  through  the 
wilting,  rolling,  fermenting,  and  drying  processes, 
at  the  tea-farm,  the  fermentation  changing  the  color 
of  the  leaf  to  a  reddish  brown,  and  converting  part  of 
the  tannic  acid  to  sugar,  in  which  regard  black  teas 
differ  from  green  teas,  the  leaves  of  which  are  dried 
as  they  come  from  the  bush.  With  all  the  machines 
invented  and  used  on  tea-plantations  in  India  and 
Ceylon,  a  drier  has  only  once  been  used  in  China. 
All  attempts  toward  greater  care  and  cleanliness  in 
preparation  have  been  as  vain  as  attempts  toward 
introducing  machinery  at  the  tea-farms  themselves. 
Neither  declining  trade  nor  prices  can  stimulate  the 
tea-growers  to  any  change,  and  only  when  the  whole 
country  is  open  to  foreign  trade  and  residence  will 


366  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

each  village  or  valley  have  its  own  tea-factory  to  cure 
and  pack  the  tea  for  final  shipment  on  the  spot. 

The  dried  tea-leaves  of  the  first  crop  are  gathered 
up  by  middlemen  and  brought  to  Hankow,  and  on 
some  day  in  the  first  week  of  May  the  Chinese  bro- 
kers, in  silk  array,  are  borne  in  sedan-chairs  from  the 
native  city  and  set  down  in  the  compounds  of  the 
great  hongs  to  offer  their  first  musters,  or  samples  of 
tea.  The  high  season  begins  at  that  moment,  and  for 
six  weeks,  in  the  first  scorch  and  stew  of  its  summer 
climate,  Hankow  runs  at  high  pressure.  The  musters 
are  tested  by  foreign  experts,  the  skilled  tea-tasters, 
whose  acute  and  highly  trained  senses  render  their 
judgment  and  appraisal  unerring.  A  few  leaves  are 
carefully  weighed  from  the  muster  into  a  shallow  cup, 
and  boiling  water  poured  over  them.  The  tea-taster 
notes  carefully  how  the  leaves  unfold  in  the  water, 
how  the  liquor  colors  and  deepens  to  a  rich,  clear 
coffee-brown,  and  inhales  the  fragrance  of  the  essen- 
tial oil  as  it  is  borne  off  in  vapor  before  he  takes  his 
judicial  sip.  He  carefully  analyzes  its  qualities  for 
the  second  it  rests  on  his  tongue,  and  then  ejects  the 
liquid,  never  by  any  chance  swallowing  it.  A  price  is 
agreed  upon,  and  the  tea  is  brought  in  chests  and 
thick  paper  sacks  and  dumped  into  great  bins  at  the 
factory,  where  it  is  refired,  or  toasted  slowly  in  iron 
pans  over  charcoal  fires,  to  dry  it  thoroughly,  then 
sealed  in  air-tight  lead  cases  within  wooden  chests, 
which  are  papered,  varnished,  covered  with  matting, 
and  hurried  aboard  the  waiting  ships.  The  average 
price  at  nankow  for  this  first-quality  black  leaf-tea, 
which  is  all  shipped  to  Odessa,  is  about  forty  Mexican 


THE   RIVER  OF  FRAGRANT   TEA-FIELDS       367 

dollars  for  each  ninety-pound  chest.  Twenty-five  half- 
chests  of  this  first  crop's  pekoe-leaves  are  sent  to  the 
Emperor  of  Russia  for  palace  use.  Several  times  it 
has  happened  that  the  whole  crop  of  some  particular 
farm  or  hillside  has  been  bought  up  by  the  Russians 
and  shipped  before  Chinese  connoisseurs,  who  would 
drink  no  other  tea,  knew  it.  At  once  they  cabled  to 
Odessa,  and  had  the  tea  bought  on  arrival  and  shipped 
back  to  China.  Twice  on  the  Yangtsze  I  used  a  rich 
and  fragrant  tea  from  the  Keemung  hills  that  had  per- 
formed that  journey  to  Odessa  and  return,  because 
some  mandarin  knew  what  he  wanted  and  was  willing 
to  pay  for  it. 

The  tea-taster  is  king  at  Hankow  for  the  six  weeks 
of  his  exclusive  reign,  and  whatever  he  may  do  dur- 
ing the  remainder  of  the  year,  he  is  a  most  rigid  total 
abstainer  during  the  high  season,  when  every  faculty 
of  his  keenest  senses  is  on  the  alert.  Although  he 
never  swallows  a  sample  sip,  the  tea-taster's  nerves 
and  digestion  are  impaired  at  the  end  of  ten  or  twelve 
years,  even  the  stimulating  effect  of  the  strong,  vola- 
tile aroma  in  the  tea-hongs  sometimes  giving  retired 
tea-tasters  attacks  of  that  tea-tremens  which  the  Chi- 
nese and  Japanese  recognize  as  a  disease ;  while  tem- 
perance reformers,  usually  green-tea  drinkers,  seem 
ignorant  of  the  fact  that  other  stimulants  than  alco- 
hol may  be  abused.  The  professional  tea-taster  at 
Hankow  is  said  to  drink  only  soda  or  mineral  waters 
during  the  scorching  weeks  of  his  exacting  season, 
and  when  word  goes  round  the  settlement  that  such 
a  one  of  the  great  experts  was  seen  to  take  sherry  and 
bitters  at  the  club,  it  is  a  signal  that  the  great  tea 


368  CHINA:  THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

season  is  declining,  that  little  choice  tea  is  being 
brought  in.  Then  the  tension  relaxes,  and  a  certain 
section  of  Hankow  gives  itself  over  to  a  jubilation  and 
indulgence  that  are  the  scandal  and  byword  of  the 
other  ports.  Although  the  tea  firms  are  all  Russians 
or  Siberians  now,  the  tea-tasters  are  Englishmen,  and, 
for  reasons  not  flattering  to  Russian  character,  it  is 
said  that  the  tea-tasters  will  always  be  English.  No 
green  or  oolong  teas,  no  perfumed  or  fancy  teas,  are 
included  in  these  great  summer  shipments,  those  being 
specialties  of  the  southern  ports.  Several  times  I  was 
regaled  on  pu'erJi-cJia,  the  greatly  esteemed  ^'  strength- 
ening tea  "  from  Pu'erh  Fu  in  Yun-nan.  It  had  a  mil- 
dew, tobacco,  weedy  flavor,  a  bitter  draught  which 
is  warranted  to  strengthen  the  system,  clear  the 
brain,  relieve  the  body  of  all  humors  and  bile,  and 
serves  high -living  mandarins  as  a  course  at  Homburg 
does  European  bon-vivants.  This  plant  grows  in  the 
Shan  States,  and  the  leaves  are  brought  to  Pu'erh  Fu 
to  be  steamed  and  pressed  into  large,  flat  cakes,  which, 
being  packed  in  paper  only,  soon  mildew.  The  long 
viscous  leaves  are  probably  from  some  variety  of  the 
wild  Assam  tea-plant,  and  the  taste  of  the  dried  leaves 
themselves  is  a  little  like  the  yerha  huena  of  the  Cali- 
fornia foot-hills.  The  Chinese  consider  the  pu'erh-cha 
the  better  by  age,  and  do  not  heed  the  mildew  flavor. 
It  promotes  longevit}'  along  with  its  therapeutic  quali- 
ties, and  is  sent  regularly  to  the  Emperor  at  Poking. 
Despite  the  distinguished  consideration  implied,  I 
should  not  care  to  have  the  costly  herb  offered  me 
again,  and,  with  all  the  craze  for  cures,  I  doubt  if 
pu'erh-cha  would  ever  find  favor  abroad. 


THE   RIVER  OF   FRAGRANT   TEA-FIELDS       369 

The  Russians  buy  the  best  and  the  worst,  the  dear- 
est and  the  cheapest  teas  in  Hankow's  market,  the 
chests  of  choice  tea  going  to  Odessa  for  European  [^ 
Russia,  and  the  compressed  brick-  or  tile-tea  to  Mon- 
golia and  Siberia.  By  September  the  best  leaf-teas 
are  fired,  and  some  tea-steamers  are  back  at  Hankow 
for  second  cargoes,  Odessa  ships  trying  to  make  two 
round  trips  in  each  season.  After  that  the  tea-farmers 
send  in  the  bags  of  coarse  leaves,  broken  and  refuse 
tea,  the  dust  from  their  tables,  bins,  and  floors ;  the 
factories  have  binfuls  of  such  leavings  and  sweepings 
too,  and  the  manufacture  of  brick-tea  begins,  and  con- 
tinues until  January  before  all  such  accumulations 
are  disposed  of.  Tokmakoff,  Molotkoff  &  Co.'s  brick- 
tea  factory,  which  is  managed  by  a  Scotchman  who 
invented  and  adapted  several  of  the  machines  and 
processes  employed,  is  the  largest  factory  in  Hankow, 
employing  fourteen  hundred  workmen  through  the 
long  season,  and  shipping  nearly  a  million  bricks  a 
year,  with  an  almost  equal  output  from  their  factory 
at  Kiukiang.  All  the  way  to  their  compound  the  set- 
tlement is  fragrant  with  toasting  tea-leaves,  delight- 
ful whiffs  coming  from  the  rows  of  windows  at  that 
end  of  Hankow,  where  walls  are  higher  and  longer, 
and  chimneys  rise  significantly.  They  showed  us 
first  the  bins  of  fine  dust,  ground  and  sifted  by 
wretched,  sallow,  greenish-hued  coolies,  whose  nos- 
trils were  filled  with  cotton-wool  to  prevent  their 
breathing  in  the  insidious  dust.  Two  pounds  of  tea- 
dust  are  weighed  into  a  cloth,  which  is  laid  on  a  per- 
forated plate  over  a  caldron  of  boiling  water  and 
covered  for  a  few  minutes,  when  it  is  poured  into  a 


370  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

clumsy  wooden  mold,  and  a  half-pound  of  finer  dust 
added  as  a  surface.  The  mold  is  covered,  put  under 
a  screw-press,  and  clamped  shut.  The  noise  around 
this  press  is  deafening  as  the  heavy  molds  are  clanged 
about  on  iron  tables  and  the  stone  floor,  and  with  the 
half -clothed  workmen  moving  in  clouds  of  steam  from 
the  caldron  and  shouting  their  hideous  dialect  about 
the  dark  warehouse,  a  short  inspection  of  the  process 
satisfies.  The  bricks  remain  in  the  molds  for  six 
hours  to  cool,  and  are  then  removed,  weighed,  and 
stacked  in  endless  rows  in  an  upper  story  to  dry  and 
shrink,  before  being  wrapped  in  paper,  furnished  with 
red  labels  in  Russian,  and  packed  in  baskets  holding 
seventy  bricks  each.  All  defective  or  under-weight 
bricks  are  broken  and  ground  to  dust  again,  and  it 
takes  heavy  blows  with  an  iron,  or  sharp  raps  against 
the  stone  floor,  to  break  one  of  these  inch-thick  black 
tiles,  which  are  nine  inches  wide  and  twelve  inches 
long.  A  larger  and  a  smaller  size  of  green-tea  bricks 
are  also  made  at  this  factory,  into  which  the  coarse 
leaves  and  stems  go  entire,  without  grinding.  One 
naturally  wonders  that  machinery  is  not  employed  for 
all  these  simple  processes,  and  that  some  Yankee  does 
not  start  a  factory  where  a  stream  of  tea-dust  would 
go  in  at  one  end  and  rows  of  bricks  come  out  at  the 
other;  but  human  life  is  so  over-abundant  in  China 
that  hand-labor  is  cheaper  than  any  steam-driven 
machinery,  coolies'  food  worth  less  than  engine  coal. 
The  black  brick-tea  for  Mongolia  and  Siberia,  and  in 
fact  almost  the  whole  tea-supply  of  Russia,  used,  long 
ago,  to  go  from  Hankow  by  boat  for  three  hundred 
miles  up  the  Han  River,  was  portaged  across,  and 


THE  RIVER  OF  FRAGRANT    TEA-FIELDS      371 

taken  a  distance  up  the  Yellow  River,  and  then  loaded 
on  camels  and  carried  across  Shansi  to  Kiakhta,  on 
the  Siberian  frontier.  The  caravan  trade  from  Kiakhta 
and  Kalgan  to  the  Volga  was  the  subject  of  negotia- 
tions by  the  embassy  Peter  the  Great  sent  to  the  Em- 
peror Kanghsi,  and  ever  since  there  have  continued, 
winter  and  summer  alike,  the  unending  processions  of 
camel-trains  back  and  forth  across  Siberia.  Nijni- 
Novgorod  was  then  the  tea-market  of  Russia,  and  the 
water  and  land  transportation  across  Siberia  was  so 
cheap  that  tea  could  be  delivered  in  Nijni-Novgorod 
by  caravan  more  cheaply  than  by  tea-steamers  to 
European  ports.  The  opening  of  the  Suez  Canal 
gradually  moved  the  tea  trade  to  Odessa;  the  tea 
brick  is  no  longer  a  unit  of  exchange  at  Nijni,  and  the 
great  fair  on  the  Volga  has  lost  its  most  picturesque 
feature  with  the  vanishing  of  the  camels  and  the  great 
tea-caravans.  When  all  the  Chinese  tea  came  by  car- 
avan to  Nijni,  ''  caravan  tea"  had  a  deserved  repute  in 
Europe.  About  the  time  that  the  Russian  tea  trade 
shifted  to  Odessa,  the  name  of  "  caravan  tea  "  reached 
America,  and  dealers,  not  always  informed  them- 
selves, played  with  the  catching  word.  One  is  offered 
"Russian  tea,"  and  assured  that  "caravan  tea"  is 
better  than  other  teas,  because  a  sea  voyage  spoils  the 
flavor  of  tea.  One  must  not  inquire  how  the  tea 
crossed  the  Atlantic,  evidently.  If  all  leaf-teas  were 
not  sealed  in  air-tight  lead  cases,  the  sea  air  and  ships'- 
hold  odors  could  not  taint  them  as  unspeakably  as 
the  proximity  of  camel's  wool,  pack-saddle  coverings, 
and  the  belongings  of  the  filthy  Mongol  caravan-men 
on  their  three  months'  journey  across  Siberia. 


372  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

Hankow's  trade  statistics  deal  in  large  figures  for 
the  export  of  tea.  In  1896  there  went  out  from  that 
port  470,063  piculs,  or  something  over  sixty  million 
pounds,  of  leaf- tea,  and  434,107  piculs  of  brick-tea. 
In  1897  the  total  tea  shipment  was  410,01 9  piculs. 
These  figures,  as  compared  with  the  895,031  piculs 
shipped  in  1886,  show  how  the  tea  trade  has  fallen  off 
since  the  English  are  no  longer  the  great  consumers. 

Sixteen  different  religious  establishments  exist  at 
Hankow, — Catholic,  Protestant,  Greek,  and  Quaker, 
Methodist,  Baptist,  Presbyterian,  Episcopal,— English, 
Canadians,  Swedish,  Norwegians,  Spanish,  Italians, 
Scotch,  Americans,  and  Russians  all  striving  in  evan- 
gelical ways,  and  by  their  number  confusing  the 
native. 

A  ride  through  the  native  city  of  eight  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants  is  an  experience  no  one  would 
willingly  repeat.  While  Shanghai,  Canton,  and  Amoy 
run  rivahy,  and  imperial  Peking  has  some  sloughs 
and  slums  and  smells  unparalleled,  Hankow  may  be 
safely  entered  against  the  field.  The  people  of  the 
Yangtsze  banks  are  in  general  as  unlovely  a  lot  as  can 
be  found  in  China,  but  never  have  I  seen  such  dull, 
heavy-featured,  dirty,  and  unhealthy-looking  faces  as 
in  the  Hankow  slums. 

It  is  interesting  to  review  by  boat  the  water-front 
of  the  native  city,  where  some  futile  attempts  have 
been  made  at  stone  embankments,  and  where  brown 
boats  crowd  together  and  creep  about  like  water- 
insects,  while  a  glimpse  up  the  narrow  river  Han  shows 
only  a  vista  of  masts,  where  junks  are  crowded  ten 
rows  deep  on  each  side  of  the  water-street  dividing 


THE  RIVER  OF   FRAGRANT   TEA-FIELDS       373 

the  cities  of  Hankow  and  Hanyang.  The  great  water- 
population  have  their  shops  and  marts  afloat,  each 
trading-junk  displaying  its  trade  emblem  or  a  sample 
of  its  specialty  at  the  masthead.  A  bundle  of  fire-wood 
dangled  from  one  mast ;  buckets,  brushes,  stools,  bar- 
bers' bowls  and  plaited  queues,  hanks  of  thread,  gar- 
ments, and  candles  advertised  other  floating  shops. 
Every  kind  of  craft  that  floats  upon  the  Yangtsze 
water  system  may  be  seen  at  this  great  entrep6t: 
Hu-nan  rice-boats,  as  graceful  and  slender  as  Vene- 
tian gondola  or  Haida  canoe ;  clumsy  Szechuan  cargo- 
junks  ;  ridiculous  house-boats ;  and  even  the  quaint 
fiddle-shaped  boats  from  Lake  Poyang,  the  sides  of 
which,  contracted  at  the  middle  like  the  body  of  a 
violin,  perpetuate  evasions  of  the  ancient  law  that 
taxed  boats  according  to  their  breadth  of  beam  amid- 
ships. Could  any  opera  bouffe  ever  burlesque  China  ? 
Bewitched  by  its  crass  absurdity,  I  asked  to  have  a 
model  of  the  fiddle-boat  made ;  but  the  oldest  foreign 
resident  on  the  river  besought  me  not  to  begin  on 
boat  models,  since  his  efforts  in  collecting  them  had 
been  so  over-rewarded  that  he  had  had  to  desist  for 
want  of  storage-room.  No  models  seem  to  have  been 
put  aside  since  the  deluge— save  the  centiped,  dragon, 
hawk's-beak,  and  four-wheeled  junks,  descriptions  and 
pictures  of  which  survive  from  a  thousand  years  ago, 
when  the  Yangtsze  was  the  dividing-line  between  two 
great  empires  and  naval  battles  raged.  The  four- 
wheeled  junk  had  two  wheels  at  the  bow  and  two  at  the 
stern— the  common  water-wheels  of  their  irrigating 
ditches,  turned  by  hand  or  treadmill  gangs.  After  al- 
most anticipating  Fulton's  invention  by  ten  centuries. 


374  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

they  stood  still  forever  after.  Chinese  conceit  claims 
half  of  Western  inventions  as  mere  imitations  or  re- 
vivals of  long-forgotten  Chinese  things.  Anything 
and  everything— stern-  and  side-wheel  steamers,  tele- 
phones, telegraphs,  phonographs,  railroads,  and  elec- 
tric lights,  almost  the  automobile— can  be  found  de- 
scribed in  some  book  of  the  immortal  classics.  Ages 
ago  a  Taoist  teacher  spoke  into  a  box,  put  his  voice 
in  a  box  and  sent  it  to  a  kindred  soul.  "  Is  not 
that  plainly  the  foreigners'  phonograph  ? "  ask  the  il- 
luminated literati.  "  What  could  be  clearer  ?  What 
more  proof  do  you  want  when  we  find  it  in  the  books 
of  the  classics  ? " 

Hanyang,  the  twin  city  of  Hankow,  is  no  more  filthy 
and  dilapidated  than  its  neighbor,— it  hardly  could  be, 
—but  it  boasts  the  arsenal  and  iron-works,  those  ex- 
pensive foreign  toys  of  Chang  Chi  Tung,  the  great 
viceroy,  reputed  the  one  honest  official  in  China,  the 
one  provincial  officer  of  the  empire  who  does  not  di- 
vert the  revenues  and  riches  of  his  satrapy  into  his 
own  pocket.  His  iron  ore  is  brought  from  a  district 
seventy  miles  away,  the  coal  is  transported  two  hun- 
dred miles,  and  often  Japanese  coal  is  used,  since  the 
local  and  export  taxes  on  Chinese  coal  make  imported 
coal  cheaper  along  this  river  of  inexhaustible  coal-fields. 
Rifles  and  smokeless  powder  are  made  at  the  Hanyang 
works,  as  well  as  the  rails  for  the  intended  future  great 
road  from  Peking  to  Canton — a  scheme  in  agitation 
for  thirty  years,  that  has  exercised  all  the  intelligence, 
ambition,  and  rascality  in  China,  brought  armies  of 
floaters,  promoters,  concessionaries,  schemers,  si)ecu- 
lators,  sharks,  and  sharps  of  all  nations  to  China,  set 


THE   RIVER  OF   FRAGRANT   TEA-FIELDS      375 

the  diplomatic  corps  at  Peking  by  the  ears  many 
times,  and  ahnost  embroiled  rival  European  nations  in 
war,  and  now,  with  concessions  granted,  is  a  project 
almost  as  far  from  realization  as  ever.  The  officials 
at  Peking  were  slow  to  learn  that  concession-granting 
was  profitable  for  them.  Until  it  is  proved  that  con- 
cession-working is  also  profitable,  railroad-building 
will  lag.  Any  amateur  prophet  can  tell  that  when 
this  railway  is  completed  it  will  be  to  all  intents  a 
Russian  railway,  a  feeder  and  branch  of  the  trans- 
Siberian  system,  connecting  the  Russian  tea  port  of 
Hankow  with  Irkutsk,  the  trade  and  railway  center  of 
Siberia.  A  Belgian  syndicate  holds  the  concession, 
but  in  China  one  paraphrases  Napoleon's  saying,  and 
it  is  only  necessary  to  scratch  the  Belgian  to  find  the 
Muscovite  Tatar. 

There  is  a  picturesque  tea-house  in  the  grounds  of 
an  old  temple  by  Hanyang's  river-bank,  which  is  the 
resort  of  literati  and  officials,  and  where  the  viceroy 
gave  a  great  feast  to  the  present  Czar  and  to  Prince 
George  of  Greece  a  dozen  years  ago.  The  "  great 
dividing  mountain"  curves  back  from  this  riverside 
temple  point,  and  is  the  lucky  tortoise  which  offsets 
the  dragon  hill  in  opposite  Wuchang,  and  by  that 
combination  secures  favorable  geomantic  influences, 
good  wind  and  water  for  the  three  cities.  Hanyang's 
tortoise  bears  a  temple  on  its  back,  while  far  across 
the  river  a  needle  of  a  pagoda  marks  the  head  of  the 
Wuchang  dragon.  Some  greasy  priests  inhabit  the 
temple  on  the  heights,  and  from  their  courts,  three 
hundred  feet  above  the  river,  one  has  a  fine  view  of 
the  twin  cities  stretching  away,  in  a  huddle  of  roofs 


376  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIEE 

coveriug  more  than  a  million  people,  to  the  billows  of 
greenery  by  the  river-bank,  marking  the  English  con- 
cession. 

Wuchang,  the  "  Queen  of  the  Yangtsze,"  where  oflS- 
cials  and  literati  live,  where  the  viceroy  has  another 
foreign  toy  in  the  shape  of  a  great  electric-lighted 
cotton-mill,  and  a  military  establishment  with  German 
instructors,  and  where  the  American  missionaries  have 
their  schools  and  hospital,  is  seen  in  full  bird's-eye 
view  from  the  temple  terraces.  One  has  small  wish 
to  cross  the  mile  of  swift,  white-capped  waters,  where 
sampans  struggle  against  or  are  swept  away  by  the 
seven-mile  current,  to  see  the  viceroy's  seat,  a  great 
city  once  Taipinged  to  rubbish-heaps,  and  but  shabbily 
patched  up  in  places  in  the  quarter  of  a  century  since 
that  incident.  It  reeks  with  filth,  and  its  people  give 
scant  welcome  to  the  stranger  in  town,  their  stoning 
of  the  German  minister  on  his  way  from  a  viceregal 
visit  being  a  last  straw  and  a  golden  incident  in  the 
summing  up  of  events  that  led  to  the  forcible  lease  of 
Kiao-chau. 


XXV 

A  THOUSAND  IVnLES  UP  THE  YANGTSZE 

[BOVE  Hankow  the  Yangtsze  River  tests 
all  of  a  fresh- water  navigator's  skill  and 
patience ;  and  changing  to  small,  light- 
draft  steamers,  we  were  three  days  in 
accomplishing  the  four  hundred  miles  to 
Ichang,  sounding  and  feeling  the  way  among  sand- 
bars by  day,  and  anchoring  at  night. 

"Bhe  picturesque  old  walled  town  of  Yo-chau,  at  the 
edge  of  Tung-ting  Lake,  was  declared  an  open  port 
in  April,  1898 ;  but  its  people  have  a  bad  name,  and 
its  future  only  a  stormy  promise.  The  Hu-nan  brave 
is  the  most  disorderly  of  all  Chinese ;  Hu-nan  literati 
have  sent  out  the  shameful  pamphlets  and  led  the 
anti-foreign  crusades  for  3'ears ;  and  Hu-nan  has  so 
reeked  with  the  blood  of  martyred  priests  for  a  cen- 
tury past  that,  had  France  been  so  disposed,  she 
might  have  taken  possession  of  the  whole  province, 
and,  indeed,  all  the  provinces  of  China,  more  Ger- 
manico,  long  ago.  The  opening  of  Yo-chau,  with  the 
free  navigation  of  this  inland  sea  of  three  hundred 
square  miles,  secures  great  prosperity  for  the  region, 

377 


378  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

and  some  illumination  for  its  bigoted  and  unreasona- 
ble people.  An  old  trade  route  passes  up  the  Siang 
River  from  the  foot  of  this  sacred  lake,  and  by  the 
Cheling  Pass  to  the  West  River  above  Canton.  The 
projected  railway  of  the  American  syndicate  from 
Wuchow  to  Canton  will  pass  near  the  east  shore  of 
the  lake  and  cross  by  the  Cheling  to  the  southern 
province. 

On  great  Kin  Shan,  or  Golden  Island,  in  Tung- 
ting  Lake,  tea-culture  has  been  made  the  finest  art, 
and  this  tea,  possessing,  along  with  other  virtues, 
the  gift  of  longevity,  is  all  reserved  for  the  Emperor 
of  China.  The  first  crop  of  this  choice  tea  of  immor- 
tality would  be  worth  eight  Mexican  dollars  a  pound, 
by  commercial  estimates,  if  it  could  be  bought ;  but  the 
priests  guard  each  sacred  leaf -bud,  and  send  it  all  to 
Peking,  though,  by  common  gossip  in  the  Purple  For- 
bidden City,  the  Emperor  drinks  something  less  rare. 
The  argument  in  that  imperial  topsyturvydom  is  that, 
as  the  Emperor  never  visits  any  one  or  drinks  any 
one  else's  tea,  he  cannot  know  the  difference,  and  that 
if  the  Kin  Shan  tea  was  ever  exhausted,  heads  would 
fall  when  a  substitute  was  offered.  Because  of  this 
imperial  connection  the  Taiping  rebels  uprooted  the 
bushes  and  devastated  the  island ;  but  it  soon  recov- 
ered, and  the  plantations  throve  again.  Tea  from  the 
Ming-shan  hills,  by  the  lake,  is  also  sent  in  satin- 
covered  boxes  fi'om  Yo-chau  to  the  Peking  palace. 

Above  the  outlet  of  Tung-ting  Lake,  the  Yangtsze 
is  a  broad,  shallow,  wandering  stream,  half  the  volume 
of  the  river  being  diverted  through  the  lake  by  a 
canal  at  its  western  end.     The  lead  was  swung,  the 


A  THOUSAND  MILES   UP  THE  YANGTSZE      379 

monotonous  chant  of  the  man  at  the  line  rang  all  after- 
noon, and  the  tiniest  of  steam-launches  skimmed  the 
surface  ahead  like  a  frantic  water-insect,  the  pilot 
probing  the  mud  with  a  bamboo  pole  and  marking  the 
six-foot  channel  by  a  line  of  staves. 

The  next  day  there  were  the  same  monotonous  mud- 
banks  again,  protective  dikes  that  run  for  three  hun- 
dred miles  above  Hankow.  Country  folk  used  the 
embankment  as  a  highway,  processions  of  men,  women, 
and  children,  buffaloes,  pack-horses,  carts,  and  sledges, 
filing  along  in  silhouette  against  the  sky.  Lone  and 
ragged  fishermen  inhabited  burrows  in  the  bank,  or 
from  a  platform  over  the  water  worked  big,  square 
dip-nets  by  levers ;  and  for  fifty  times  that  I  watched 
the  big,  square  cobweb  drop  beneath  the  waters,  once 
a  small  silverfish  was  dipped  up.  Children  with  fly- 
ing pigtails,  as  near  to  young  apes  as  their  earliest 
ancestors  could  have  been,  shrieked  at  the  fire-boat, 
and  ran  along  to  watch  the  foreigners  on  deck. 
"  Look  !  see  !  Look !  see  !  "  they  screamed  joyfully ; 
and  ^'  Foreign  devil !  oh,  foreign  devil !  "  they  bawled, 
with  menacing  gestures.  "Oh,  give  me  a  bottle! 
Quick  !  Give  me  a  bottle,  foreign  devil !  "  other  fran- 
tic ones  cried.  Chinese  passengers  on  the  lower  deck 
found  amusement  in  holding  out  bottles  to  induce  the 
poor,  tired  little  apes  to  run  for  miles  along  the  mud- 
banks,  only  to  have  the  boat  veer  away  to  the  baboon 
laughter  of  the  inhuman  teasers  of  the  wretched  little 
country  children,  to  whom  a  glass  bottle  is  a  treasure. 
In  revenge,  the  children  have  learned  to  fasten  a  mud 
ball  on  the  end  of  a  bamboo,  and  with  a  quick  jerk 
shoot  the  pellet  to  the  steamer-decks.     The  fusillade 


380  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

is  unpleasant,  often  dangerous;  and  as  the  young 
imps  master  the  science  of  projectiles,  there  are  bits 
of  inshore  navigation  beset  with  uncharted  perils. 

We  came  to  larger  towns  with  stone  embankments, 
conspicuous  temples,  and  yamuns  where  inverted  fish- 
baskets  on  tall  poles  proclaimed  the  official  residence. 
When  we  reached  the  Taiping  Canal,  which  cuts  away 
to  Tung-ting  Lake  and  drains  the  Yangtsze  of  half 
its  flood,  the  lonely  river  was  enlivened.  Here  two 
great  trade  routes,  the  land  route  from  north  to  south 
and  the  river  route  from  west  to  east,  cross.  Great 
Szechuan  cargo-junks  came  down  with  the  current, 
their  chanting  crews  steering  by  a  broad  projecting 
sweep  or  oar  at  the  bows,  and  great  junks  went  up, 
sailing  and  tracking,  with  gangs  of  ragged  creatures 
straining  at  their  bricole  thongs,  like  the  beasts  of 
burden  they  are.  Brown  sails  and  blue-and-white 
striped  sails  ornamented  the  water,  and  hills  beyond 
hills  rose  in  the  west,  with  needle-spired  pagodas 
pricking  the  sunset  sky,  and  bold  headlands  coming 
to  the  river's  bank.  It  was  six  o'clock  and  all  blue- 
black  darkness  when  we  crept  close  to  the  twinkUng 
lights  of  Shasi's  bund  and  dropped  the  heaviest  an- 
chors. The  current  races  there  at  the  rate  of  seven 
miles  an  hour,  and  passenger-boats  that  ventured  out 
for  prey  came  whirling  at  us  broadside  on,  stern  first, 
bow  first,  any  way  at  all,  and  banged  the  steamer's  hull 
alarmingly.  A  hundred  boatmen  squawked,  screeched, 
and  chattered  madly,  and  if  one  of  them  failed  to 
grapple  the  chains  and  lines  along  the  free-board  at 
the  moment,  the  current  swept  him  astern  and  far 
down-stream  before  he  could  recover  headwav  with 


APPROACU    AND   IIASONUY   FKUNT   OV   CAVK   TEMPLE   NEAR  ICHANG. 


A  THOUSAND  MILES  UP  THE  YANGTSZE      383 

the  oars.  The  frantic  ki-yi-ings  of  these  disappointed 
ones,  swept  away  into  distant  darkness,  filled  the 
night  air  along  with  the  noises  on  shore. 

Shasi  is  an  old  city  with  a  deservedly  bad  name. 
The  opening  of  this  port  was  secured  by  the  Japa- 
nese in  the  treaty  of  Shimonoseki  (1895),  and  as  soon 
as  a  Japanese  consulate  could  be  built,  the  Shasi 
spirit  broke  out  and  the  building  was  destroyed,  the 
four  ringleader  assailants  afterward  executed,  the 
consulate  rebuilt  at  local  expense,  and  further  con- 
cessions granted  in  reparation.  The  customs  offi- 
cers, occupying  house-boats  moored  to  the  bund, 
barely  escaped  with  their  lives,  and  the  floating 
British  consulate  was  set  adrift,  and  with  difficulty 
rescued  from  burning.  The  town  is  behind  the  em- 
bankment, and  one  sees  only  a  few  roofs  to  tell  of 
a  city  of  seventy-three  thousand  inhabitants;  but 
Shasi  is,  after  all,  only  the  port  and  place  of  junk 
transhipment  for  King-chau,  the  provincial  capital, 
which  lies  back  from  the  river  a  mile  above  the 
rowdy  water-town. 

We  had  toiled  three  hundred  miles  up-stream  to 
reach  this  great  cross-roads  of  provincial  trade,  yet 
we  could  have  returned  to  Hankow  by  a  hundred- 
mile  journey,  either  on  foot  or  by  boat,  through  a 
line  of  creeks  and  small  canals.  For  a  last  day  we 
had  bright,  mild  December  sunshine.  Mud-banks 
gave  way  to  clay-  and  gravel-banks,  and  conglome- 
rate, red  sandstone,  and  limestone  cropped  out. 
Fields  were  green  with  winter  wheat,  tallow-trees 
glowed  with  rich-red  autumnal  foliage,  and  men  in 
dull-blue  garments,  at  work  on  those   trees,  added 


384  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

another  color-note  to  the  picture.  Pagodas  spired 
the  crests  of  near  and  distant  hills.  Temples,  dago- 
bas,  and  shrines  told  of  the  great  religion  which  came 
by  this  route  from  Til)et  and  India.  The  Yangtsze 
is  a  broad,  deep  stream  in  this  upper  limestone  re- 
gion ;  the  landscape  is  attractive ;  and  the  Tiger- 
tooth  Gorge,  first  in  scenic  attractions,  is  followed 
by  a  remarkable  natural  or  fairy  bridge  spanning  a 
ravine  between  two  rocky  hills.  (Four  miles  below 
Ichang  and  a  mile  back  from  the  river,  a  palisade 
wall  rises  a  sheer  thousand  feet,  extends  for  a  mile  or 
more,  and  the  Chih  Fu  Shan  monastery  crowns  a 
pinnacle  rock  that  is  joined  to  the  palisade  wall  by  a 
masonry  bridge.  This  neglected  old  Buddhist  fane 
is  as  remarkable  as  any  of  Thessaly's  "'monasteries 
in  the  air,"  and  one  needs  a  clear  head  and  steady 
nerves  to  walk,  or  be  carried  in  an  open  hill-chair, 
up  the  narrow  goat-path  on  the  rock's  face  and 
along  a  knife-edged  ridge,  and  across  "the  bridge 
in  the  sky  "  to  the  needle  rock.  ]  There  is  a  dizzier 
path  still  up  rock-hewn  staircases  around  to  the  mon- 
astery door.  A  few  miserably  poor  and  ignorant 
priests  crouch  on  the  summit  of  the  rock.  The 
altars  are  stripped  and  deserted,  and  imagination 
must  supply  any  legends  or  splendors  attaching  to 
this  aerial  shrine. 

A  clumsy  pagoda  on  the  river-bank  is  first  land- 
mark for  Ichang,  and  the  gray  city  walls  edge  the 
water  for  a  half-mile,  inclosing  an  uninteresting  city 
of  thirty-five  thousand  inhabitants.  Junks  of  all 
provinces  crowd  the  water-fi-ont,  and  a  tiny  British 
gunboat,  all  sliining  white  and  brasswork,  protects 


A  THOUSAND  MILES  UP  THE  YANGTSZE      385 

the  handful  of  foreign  residents.  Chinese  river- 
steamers,  as  gay  as  cockatoos,  with  blue  bodies  and 
yellow  deck-houses,  add  to  the  gaiety  of  navigation ; 
and  war- junks,  with  red  standards  and  pennants,  tilt 
about  stream  with  beating  tom-toms— hundreds  of 
flags  and  gala  rags  fluttering  from  junk-masts,  but 
never  the  official  national  flag  of  China.  These  pro- 
vincials have  nothing  to  do  with  that.  It  belongs  to 
"those  Manchus  at  Peking,"  probably j  it  is  not  old 
custom  to  display  it. 

At  low  water,  one  climbs  the  terraced  steps  of 
a  seventy-foot  embankment,  and  at  high  water  is 
rowed  in  the  garden  gate  and  over  the  flower-beds 
to  the  steps  of  the  custom-house.  A  great  grave- 
yard extends  from  Ichang's  city  walls  for  a  mile 
along  the  river-bank  and  a  half-mile  inland,  and 
the  foreign  settlement  is  in  the  midst  of  this  grue- 
some suburb.  French,  Scotch,  Canadian,  and  Ameri- 
can mission  establishments,  the  consulates,  customs 
buildings,  and  a  few  hongs,  all  solid  brick-and-stone 
buildings  in  high-walled  compounds,  constitute  the 
settlement,  which  dates  from  1887,  although  con- 
ceded as  an  open  port  in  the  Chefoo  convention 
of  1876,  which  made  reparation  for  the  murder  of 
Margary,  the  British  explorer,  travehng  with  Chinese 
consent  across  Yun-nan  to  Burma.  Ichang  settle- 
ment was  once  destroyed  and  twice  threatened  by 
rioters,  and  the  residents  find  these  acres  of  graves, 
this  belt  of  ancestral  tumuli  surrounding  them,  an 
advantage  and  protection,  these  thousands  of  dead 
forefathers  more  desirable  neighbors  than  their  living 
descendants.     They  even  manage  to  play  golf  in  this 


386  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

graveyard,  a  course  of  a  tliousand  bunkers  and  haz- 
ards, with  fine  drives  insured  from  teeing-gi*ounds 
fixed  on  certain  superior  mandarin  mounds.  Until 
1897,  when  China  joined  the  Postal  Union,  each  port 
on  the  river  had  its  own  post-office  and  local  stamps- 
sets  of  these  local  treaty-port  stamps  treasures  to 
philatelists.  The  sale  of  Ichang  stamps  furnished 
funds  to  purchase  the  inevitable  recreation-ground, 
first  necessity  of  British  exiles  in  the  East. 

The  neighborhood  is  rich  in  temples,  hilltop  and 
cave  shrines,  both  Taoist  and  Buddhist,  and  in  con- 
tinuation of  its  legend  a  colony  of  otter-fishers  lives 
by  the  An-an  temple  across  the  river.  The  fisherman 
rows  out  and  casts  his  huge  circular  net  upon  the 
water,  and  as  it  sinks,  the  otter  slips  down  the  central 
cord  and  brings  up  any  imprisoned  fish. 

Ichang,  one  thousand  miles  from  the  sea,  and  in  the 
shadow  of  the  great  central  mountain-range,  which 
crosses  China  from  Siam  to  the  Amur,  is  the  head  of 
steam-navigation  and  port  of  transhipment  for  all  the 
products  arriving  from  the  provinces  beyond  the 
range.  The  famous  gorges  and  rapids  of  the  Yangtsze 
begin  there,  the  river  running  through  the  Mountains 
of  the  Seven  Gates,  as  its  flood  has  cut  seven  deep  ca- 
nons through  the  uplifted  rocks,  and  carved  their  walls 
to  a  scenic  panorama  for  the  four  hundred  miles  be- 
tween Ichang  and  Chungking.  Despite  conventions 
and  promises,  Ichang  remained  the  end  of  steam-navi- 
gation for  twenty  years  after  the  privilege  of  such 
navigation  was  conceded  on  the  Upper  Yangtsze.  Ob- 
structive mandarins  resorted  to  every  subterfuge  and 
device  to  prevent  the  march  of  progress  and  the  in- 


A   THOUSAND  MILES    UP  THE  YANGTSZE      389 

evitable  end  of  their  extortions,  and  even  that  arch- 
pretender  to  progress,  Li  Hung  Chang,  gravely  assured 
negotiators  that  the  monkeys  on  the  banks  would 
throw  stones  at  the  steamers  in  the  gorges,  and  he 
could  not  let  foreigners  run  such  risks  !  The  privilege 
of  steam -navigation  on  the  upper  river  was  again  con- 
ceded in  the  treaty  of  Shimonoseki  in  1895,  but  clumsy 
junks  and  Jctvatsze  continued  to  mount  the  rapids  at 
the  end  of  bamboo  tow-ropes,  with  all  navigation  sus- 
pended in  the  weeks  of  flood,  until,  in  March,  1898,  Mr. 
Archibald  Little,  who  had  clung  to  the  intention  for 
twenty  years,  took  a  small  steamer  to  Chungking. 
In  June,  1898,  the  free  navigation  of  all  waterways 
was  enjoyed  through  British  diplomacy,  and  steam- 
whistles  have  echoed  in  all  the  great  gorges. 

The  prize  in  view  on  the  Upper  Yangtsze  has  been 
the  trade  of  Szechuan,  the  richest,  most  fertile,  and 
best-governed  province  of  China,  the  seventy  million 
inhabitants  of  which  have  been  praised  by  every 
traveler  from  Marco  Polo  to  the  present  day  of  Lord 
Charles  Beresford's  commercial  mission.  Szechuan's 
fertile  plains  and  valleys  have  earned  it  the  name 
of  "  the  Granary  of  China,"  and  proverbs  relate  that 
''  Szechuan  grows  more  grain  in  one  year  than  it  can 
consume  in  ten  years,"  and  the  boast  is  made  that 
"  you  never  see  an  ill-dressed  man  from  Szechuan." 
It  is  one  of  the  great  silk  provinces,  and  the  seat  of 
opium-culture  in  China,  patches  of  poppies  flaunting 
in  the  gorges,  and  great  plains  and  valleys  above 
ablaze  with  the  seductive  flowers  which  furnish  three 
fourths  of  China's  opium-supply. 

Since  Abbe  Hue  wrote  his  account  of  the  province 


390  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

and  the  people,  Szechuan  and  all  tliis  far  west  of 
China  have  been  the  goal  of  travelers  and  scientists. 
Richtofen,  Pumpelly,  Von  Kreitner,  Hosie,  Baber, 
Blakiston,  Little,  Gill,  Hart,  Parker,  and  Pratt,  Mrs. 
Little  and  Mrs.  Bishop,  have  published  at  length  and 
seriously,  and  Dr.  Morrison,  the  inimitable  "  Austra- 
lian in  China,"  has  diverted  his  readers  with  his  ad- 
ventures on  his  happy-go-lucky  trip  up-country. 

With  the  assistance  of  all  kindly  and  hospitable 
Ichang,— and  they  offered  and  brought,  sent  and  lent 
and  gave,  every  possible  thing  that  could  be  thought 
of  for  our  comfort,— our  kwatsze,  a  lumbering  Noah's 
ark  of  a  house-boat,  got  away  late  in  the  afternoon  of 
our  first  day  ashore.  On  a  flatboat  fifty  feet  long  a 
two-room  cabin  had  been  built  amidships,  leaving  a 
space  at  the  bows  for  the  crew  to  work,  cook,  sleep, 
and  eat,  and  a  space  behind  the  cabin  where  our  boy 
and  cook  lived  and  worked,  dodging  the  sweep  of  a 
giant  tiller,  which  reached  up  above  the  roof  of  our 
cabin,  where  the  master  stood  to  command  the  craft. 
A  projecting  cabin  at  the  stern,  the  most  ridiculous 
flying-poop,  was  the  captain's  cabin,  where  he  im- 
mured a  rather  pretty,  flat-faced  wife  with  small  feet 
and  a  dirty  blue  coat,  whose  life  seemed  spent  in  sit- 
ting on  a  stool  and  smiling  at  space. 

This  tipsy,  top-heavy,  crazy  craft  was  ours  for  so 
much  each  day  that  we  chose  to  keep  it,  and  a  crew  of 
ten  men  were  engaged  to  take  us  the  thirty-nine  miles 
to  Kuei,  through  the  three  greatest  scenic  gorges  and 
back,  any  farther  travel  a  matter  of  fresh  bargain, 
the  w^hole  expense  of  boat,  crew,  provisions,  and  gra- 
tuities for  the  week's  trip  being  less  than  thirty  doL 


A  THOUSAND  MILES  UP  THE  YANGTSZE      393 

lars  in  silver.  All  books  of  Yangtsze  travel  are  full 
of  delayed  starts  and  long  waits  by  the  way,  because 
of  the  dilatory  and  missing  cook,  and  we  were  com- 
placent at  sight  of  our  chef  smilingly  picking  duck- 
feathers  as  we  poled  out  into  the  stream,  to  cross  and 
tie  up  far  from  city  temptations,  and  enter  the  Ichang 
Gorge  at  sunrise.  While  we  had  tea  the  boatmen 
crept  up  and  in  among  the  maze  of  junks  off  the  city 
front,  and  began  to  make  fast  for  the  night.  Then 
we  found  that  a  cook  in  the  boat  was  not  everything. 
The  captain  was  not  on  board— buying  rice,  the  sub- 
stitute said,  and  plainly  intending  to  put  us  through 
all  that  our  predecessors  had  endured  of  missing 
crews  and  delayed  starts.  The  captain's  *'  cousin,"  a 
Szechuan  soldier  with  the  word  "  brave "  sewed  in 
gory  red  letters  on  the  back  of  his  coat,  was  playing 
captain  overhead,  and,  at  our  discovery  of  the  situa- 
tion, went  leaping  along  from  junk  to  anchored  junk 
to  find  his  relative.  We  held  parley  with  our  com- 
panion kwatsze,  and  to  the  amazement  of  the  crew, 
they  found  themselves  rowing  across  the  river  and 
tying  up  to  the  bank  beyond  the  otter-fishers'  village. 
We  had  a  delightful  dinner  on  board,  as  regularly 
ordered  and  perfectly  served  as  if  on  shore ;  and  in 
our  snug  fore-cabin,  with  its  carved  and  gilded  par- 
titions and  window-frames,  our  rug  portieres  and 
American  oil-stove  to  offset  the  pitiless  drafts  of 
river-damp,  we  congratulated  ourselves  on  a  first 
naval  victory.  At  daylight  the  lost  captain  himself 
roused  the  crew,  the  octogenarian  fo'c's'le  cook  dealt 
them  bowls  of  rice  and  green  stuff,  the  braided  bam- 
boo ropes  were  uncoiled,  and  the  draft-creatures  began 


394  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

hauling  us  up-stream.  The  captain  greeted  us  smil- 
ingly, without  embarrassment  or  apologies,  and  no 
strained  relations  followed  the  incident  of  the  night 
before ;  but  the  Szechuan  soldier  with  his  red-lettered, 
decorative  back  was  missing,  still  hunting  for  the 
lost  captain  on  the  other  shore. 

The  first  or  Ichang  Gorge  begins  two  miles  above 
the  city,  the  river,  narrowed  to  less  than  three  hun- 
dred yards,  flowing  for  nine  miles  in  a  deep  chasm 
five  hundred  and  a  thousand  feet  deep.  Two  great 
conglomerate  cliffs  form  an  entrance  gateway,  at  one 
side  of  which  a  torrent  has  cut  out  the  picturesque 
San  Yu  Tung  Ravine,  at  the  mouth  of  which  Ichang 
residents  maintain  a  summer  club  on  a  large  house- 
boat moored  in  the  cool  drafts  of  the  gorge.  There 
is  a  cave  temple  of  great  antiquity  in  the  side-wall  of 
this  ravine,  and  by  following  a  path  along  rock-hewn 
shelves  and  through  tunneled  archways  that  fur- 
nished three  gateways  of  defense  in  militant  times, 
one  comes  to  the  broad  balustraded  space  at  the  front 
of  the  shrine,  a  noble  loge  commanding  a  set  scene  of 
classic  Chinese  landscape,  the  very  crags  and  clefts 
and  stunted  trees  of  ancient  kakemono.  The  cave 
arches  back  in  a  great  vault  with  a  central  column  or 
supporting  mass,  and  in  the  farther  darkness  there  is 
a  sanctuary  full  of  gilded  images,  guarded  by  carved 
dragons,  gnomes,  and  fantastic  bird-creatures,  that 
peer  out  from  dark  crevices.  Poems  and  inscriptions 
are  carved  on  the  walls,  and  incense-burners,  tirns, 
and  bells  tell  of  better  days  when  Buddhism  flour- 
ished from  Tibet  to  the  sea.  The  few  poor  priests 
boil  their  miserable  messes  of  pottage,  and  live  in 


iiTKi;  I'lsiiivi:   AT  iciiA.N(; 


A  THOUSAND  MILES  UP  THE  YANGTSZE      397 

small  chambers  at  one  side  of  the  vaulted  hall— mere 
dens  and  caves,  which,  half  lighted  on  that  sunless 
side  of  the  ravine,  are  comfortably  cool  in  summer 
and  as  cold  as  Siberia  in  winter. 

The  Ichang  Gorge  cuts  straight  westward  for  five 
or  six  miles,  and  then  turns  at  a  right  angle  north- 
ward, an  arrowy  reach  between  gray,  purple,  and  yel- 
lowed limestone  walls  overhung  with  the  richest  vege- 
tation. Tiny  orchards  and  orange-groves  are  niched 
between  the  buttresses  of  these  storied  strata  walls, 
and  cling  to  terraces ;  quarries  and  lime-kilns  show, 
and  mud  houses  are  left  behind,  stone  huts  and  houses 
being  cheaper  beside  the  quariy  than  the  wattle  and 
dab  of  the  plains.  Brown  junks  floated  in  mid-stream, 
and  junks  with  square  and  butterfly  and  striped  sails 
were  dwarfed  at  the  foot  of  the  cliffs.  All  day  our 
trackers  strained  at  the  braided  bamboo  ropes,  crawl- 
ing up  and  down  and  over  rocks  where  bamboo 
hawsers  have  cut  deep,  polished  grooves  in  the  con- 
glomerate and  limestone  banks  by  the  friction  of  cen- 
turies. Lookout  men  at  the  water's  edge  kept  the 
line  free  from  rocks,  throwing  it  off  from  any  j)rojec- 
tions,  and  wading  out  to  release  it  from  hidden  snags. 
Where  foothold  was  wanting,  the  trackers  scrambled 
on  board  and  rowed  around  the  obstacle  or  across 
stream  to  tracking-ground  again.  Their  whole  per- 
formance was  the  burlesque  of  navigation,  the  climax 
of  stupidities,  and  nothing  ingenious  or  practical 
seems  to  have  resulted  from  the  three  thousand  years 
of  "swift-water"  navigation  on  the  Upper  Yangtsze. 
The  ridiculous,  top-heavy,  tilting  kwatsze  is  wholly 
unsuited  to  such  a  flood-river,  and  the  trackers  tow 


398  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

by  a  rope  fastened  to  the  top  of  the  mast,  as  on  the 
Pei-ho,  the  mast  shivering,  springing,  and  resounding 
all  the  while.  They  rowed  us  with  poles,  round  sap- 
ling stems  held  to  the  gunwale  by  a  string  or  straw 
loop,  and  it  was  a  marvel  that  the  kwatsze  responded 
to  these  bladeless  oars,  even  when  all  hands,  including 
the  cook,  rowed  madly,  screaming  and  stamping  in 
chorus,  and  the  captain  on  the  roof  raging  and  shriek- 
ing, and  threatening  to  drop  through  upon  us.  The 
kwatsze  would  reel  and  wabble,  gain  by  inches,  and 
round  the  ripple  or  point,  and  the  ragamuffin  crew 
would  drop  off  with  the  tow-line  and  fasten  to  it  by  a 
flat  metal  button  at  the  end  of  their  bricole  thongs. 
With  a  deft  loop,  that  can  be  detached  with  the  least 
slackening,  the  cotton  thongs  hold  firmly  to  the  slip- 
pery cable.  In  all  these  thousands  of  years  they  have 
never  learned  to  ^'  line  up,"  either  by  a  capstan  on 
board  or  a  winch  on  shore,  nor  to  invent  other  com- 
pelling swift- water  fashions  of  the  Nile,  the  St.  Law- 
rence, the  Snake,  the  Columbia,  or  the  Stikine.  Some 
years  ago  Admiral  Ho  was  ordered  to  these  river 
precincts,  where  lawlessness  had  been  rife,  and  he,  un- 
precedented in  this  century  in  China,  took  an  interest 
in  his  work,  and  attempted  to  better  tilings.  He 
established  a  system  of  life-boat  patrol  in  the  gorges, 
and  his  little  red  rowboats  waiting  above  and  below 
rapids  and  eddies,  and  moving  alongshore  to  render 
assistance,  had  a  salutary  effect  on  the  wild  river  folk. 
Any  traveler  of  distinction,— and  all  foreigners  are 
that,— or  "explorer"  in  these  bv-r)arts  of  Asia,  can 
have  a  life-boat  detailed  to  accoixipany  his  kwatsze 
through  the  gorges,  adding  to  his  prestige,  compelling 


A  THOUSAND  MILES  UP  THE  YANGTSZE      401 

precedence,  and  insuring  safety  at  the  river  towns, 
where  the  scum  of  the  Yangtsze  rob  and  batter  at 
every  opportunity.  Admiral  Ho,  moreover,  compiled 
a  "  Traveler's  Guide  to  the  Upper  Yangtsze,"  which 
pictures  the  river's  surface  from  Ichang  to  Chung- 
king, with  the  profile  of  each  bank  as  seen  from  the 
water,  and  gives  pilots  directions  for  every  rock  and 
eddy. 

We  varied  our  time  in  the  lower  end  of  Ichang 
Gorge  by  many  walks  ashore,  where  familiar  flowers 
and  leaves  grew  among  the  strange  plants,  and  bou- 
quets of  bittersweet,  wild  chrysanthemums,  asters,  and 
maidenhair  ferns  went  to  our  cabin  tables.  Where 
the  water  trickles  through  beds  of  spongy  sandstone, 
the  whole  rock  face  is  covered  with  a  fine  mantle 
of  ferns,  and  this  soft  stone,  cut  off  in  slabs,  makes  a 
fairy  fern  wall  or  wainscoting  in  garden-spaces  and 
conservatories  at  Ichang.  The  rocks  are  rich  in  fos- 
sils, often  yielding  that  curious  orthoceras,  whose  long, 
tapering  shell,  cut  in  transverse  sections,  is  known  as 
the  Ichang  pagoda-stone,  and  is  cleverly  imitated  for 
the  tourist  trade. 

There  is  a  local  customs-station  in  the  midst  of  the 
gorge,  a  great  house-boat  moored  by  the  bank,  where 
every  passing  craft  must  stop  to  show  its  pass  or  pay 
duty  on  its  salt  and  cargo.  In  midsummer,  when 
the  river  is  in  flood,  and  the  accumulated  rain  and 
melted  snows  cannot  race  through  the  gorges  fast 
enough,  weeks  pass  without  a  craft  showing  off  this 
Pin-shan-pa  station,  as  deserted  a  river  as  tlie  Fraser 
in  its  eafioiis,  although  the  Yangtsze  above  Ichang 
presents  no  greater  difficulties  than  the  Snake,  the 

21 


402  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

Upper  Columbia,  the  Stikine,  and  other  swift-water 
rivers  of  the  United  States,  and  the  sheik  of  the  first 
cataract  of  the  Nile  and  a  Lachine  pilot  would  scorn 
the  small  ripples  in  these  Chinese  gorges. 

The  Ichang  Gorge  seems  to  end  in  a  cul-de-sac,  a  ver- 
tical barrier- wall  blocking  the  canon  squarely ;  but  we 
turned  a  sharp  point,  and  saw  a  narrower  and  deeper 
gorge  cutting  straight  to  the  face  of  another  trans- 
verse barrier.  This  upper  end  of  Ichang  Gorge, 
flooded  with  the  golden  sunlight  of  an  autumn  after- 
noon, each  bank  lined  with  processions  of  striped 
and  tilting  sails,  and  the  great  walls  rising  sheer  two 
or  three  thousand  feet,  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
pictures  that  I  can  remember.  The  western  wall 
was  bold  and  precipitous,  the  eastern  barrier  broken 
by  fantastic  pinnacles,  needles,  spires,  and  arches, 
with  natural  bridges,  cave  temples,  and  great  rock 
inscriptions  on  its  face.  The  natural  or  fairy  bridge, 
from  which  a  pious  hermit  flew  directly  to  the  sky, 
once  led  to  a  great  temple,  which  marked  where  the 
ancient  four  kingdoms  met.  The  steep  wall  of  rock 
at  the  end  of  the  gorge  was  topped  by  a  second 
ridge,  and  a  further,  higher  pinnacle  aspired  to  the 
very  sky,  capped  with  a  white  temple,  the  Diamond 
Shrine,  that  played  hide-and-seek  with  us  among  the 
gorges  for  the  next  three  days. 

As  there  was  no  foothold  on  the  rock  walls  of  the 
upper  gorge,  sail  was  spread,  and  the  ridiculous  oars 
went  hit  and  splash  to  a  frenzied  chorus,  every  man 
stamping  and  shrieking,  and  the  captain  on  the  roof 
outdoing  tliem  all  as  we  worked  against  the  current. 
A  puff  of  wind  filled  the  sail,  and  the  crew  dropped 


SAILS    IX   TUK  GOKGE  OF  ICUAXG,  WITH  A  KKD  LIFK-BOAT  IX  TUB  FOREGKOUXI). 


A  THOUSAND   MILES  UP  THE  YANGTSZE      405 

their  pole-oars,  and  crouched  on  their  heels  to  rest. 
Suddenly  a  mournful  "Ki-yi,"  the  wail  of  a  Sioux 
brave,  was  given  by  the  most  leather-lunged  raga- 
muffin of  the  lot;  and  all  the  rest  let  off  ki-yis  and 
war-whoops,  together,  singly,  and  at  intervals,  with- 
out moving  from  their  ''  stand-at-ease "  position. 
"  Why  do  they  make  that  noise  ? "  I  asked  our  boy ; 
and  after  much  gabbling  with  the  band  of  water- 
braves,  he  answered  for  them :  "  To  make  wind  come. 
He  talkee  wind-joss."  But  the  wind-joss  was  inat- 
tentive, and  at  every  swirling  stretch  they  had  to 
row  and  stamp  their  way  again. 

The  Ichang  Gorge  has  an  even  finer  gateway  en- 
trance at  the  upper  end  than  where  it  opens  to  the 
Hu-peh  plain;  and  as  we  passed  through  the  stu- 
pendous gates,  the  great  columnar  "  Needle  of  Hea- 
ven" spired  the  north  bank,  and  the  last  of  sunset 
glory  filled  the  valley  ahead.  Beyond  Nanto  village, 
where  the  smooth,  oily  river  was  olive  and  purple  as 
it  swirled  around  black  boulders,  we  crossed  the 
sheeny  stretch,  and  made  fast  bow-  and  stern-lines 
to  stakes  driven  in  the  sandy  shore.  The  kwatsze 
was  braced  off  from  shore  by  the  longest  poles,  to 
guard  against  a  sudden  fall  of  the  river  in  the  night 
grounding  us  on  sharp  rocks  that  would  pierce  the 
thin  hull.  We  dined  in  quiet  after  the  exciting  day 
of  landscapes  and  navigation,  having  covered  twelve 
miles  in  twelve  hours  of  frantic  exertion.  The  trackers 
had  a  fifth  round  of  rice  and  greens,  rigged  up  a  mat 
awning  over  the  bows,  produced  some  ragged  quilts 
from  the  hold,  and  laid  themselves  in  close  mummy 
rows  on  the  deck-planks  for  tlie  night. 


XXVI 

A    KWATSZE    ON    THE   YANGTSZE 

^N  early  starlight,  a  cock,  which  was  part  of 
our  live  provisions  in  the  forecastle's 
depths  beneath  the  sleeping  crew,  let  off 
a  resounding  peean  from  its  dark  prison, 
and  we  could  hear  old  Wrinkles,  the  ven- 
erable river-cook,  snap  the  twigs,  start  his  charcoal  fire, 
and  begin  his  day's  routine  of  washing  and  boiling 
rice.  In  that  deathly,  breathless  stillness  every  sound 
told,  and  we  could  follow  his  processes  as  well  as  if  we 
saw  them. 

We  had  left  the  limestone  country  behind,  and  in 
that  open  valley  reached  the  granite  and  gneiss 
foundations,  the  core  of  the  great  mountain -range. 
Something  in  the  polished  black-and-red  rocks  of  the 
river-level,  the  wastes  of  coarse  yellow  sand,  suggested 
Upper  Egypt  and  Assuan.  Later  we  saw  red  life- 
boats and  fishermen's  boats  hanging  around  the  rocks 
in  the  stream,  and  a  gi-ay-and-white  stork,  posing  on 
single  leg,  stretched  itself  and  idly  floated  away;  an- 
other and  another  stork  launched  itself  off,  until  their 
line  in  the  sky  against  the  crags  completed  the  ideal 

40G 


A  KWATSZE  ON  THE   YANGTSZE  407 

Chinese  landscape  picture.  Trackers  ran  baying 
across  tliese  sands  in  full  cry  like  packs  of  hounds, 
scrambled  over  boulders  like  four-footed  animals, 
and  sank  back  on  their  haunches  almost  with  lolling 
tongues  when  the  line  caught  on  some  sunken  rock, 
and  some  wight  stripped,  swam  out  to  and  released 
the  singing  cord.  Huge  cargo-junks  came  by,  veri- 
table ships  or  caravels  of  Columbian  cut,  with  seventy 
and  a  hundred  trackers  straining  in  leash  and  yelping 
as  they  ran,  their  masters  or  drivers  running  beside 
them,  beating  the  air  and  the  sand,  with  feints  at  be- 
laboring them,  and  rivaling  our  captain  in  the  flow  of 
frenzied  vituperations.  Their  tow-lines  cleared  our 
mast  by  a  toss,  or  were  dropped  and  drawn  under 
our  keel  with  a  drubbing  noise  that  was  a  novelty  to 
nerves  in  navigation.  There  was  swift  water  there 
among  many  rocks,  and  from  the  breakfast-table  we 
watched  the  trackers  straining  at  the  lines,  heads  hang- 
ing forward  and  arms  swinging  uselessly  from  their 
brute  bodies  as  they  hung  in  harness.  Surely,  in  all 
the  scale  of  lower  humanity,  no  creature  can  be  sunk 
to  such  a  mere  brute  life  and  occupation  as  a  Yangtsze 
tracker. 

In  this  Egyptian  vaUey  of  sand  and  boulders  our 
dahabiyeh  came  early  to  the  temple  of  the  red  dragon, 
Hwang  Ling  Miao,  built  high  above  the  sand-levels, 
with  an  attendant  village  spread  below  it,  where  all 
the  wants  of  junks  and  trackers  may  be  supplied. 
Sand  terraces  held  rows  of  houses,  sheds,  and  booths 
on  stilts,  where  bean-curd,  dried  fish,  meat,  fowls, 
eggs,  rice,  vegetables,  and  charcoal  tempted  one,  while 
rope-weavers  on  high  platforms  like  dove-cotes  or 


408  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

martin-boxes  braided  stiff  bamboo  strands  into  the 
shining  yellow  ropes  that  are  so  nearly  indestructible. 
Bamboo  ropes  do  not  rot  or  fray  like  hemp  or  cotton, 
and  water  and  dampness  only  improve  their  qualities. 
The  strands  for  weaving  and  the  coils  of  finished  cable 
are  kept  buried  in  wet  sand,  and  it  is  usually  only  the 
old,  dry,  and  brittle  bamboo  rope  that  snaps  under 
sudden  strain.  The  country  people  carried  their  bur- 
dens in  deep  baskets  on  their  backs  like  Koreans. 
An  old  priest  took  us  in  the  temple's  side-gate,  and 
showed  us  the  great  columned  hall,  with  its  gilded 
shrine  guarded  by  carved  dragons  writhing  in  chase 
of  jeweled  balls.  There  was  an  inner  sanctuary  and 
court,  with  curious  plants,  a  few  fine  vases,  and  in- 
cense-burners before  the  altar;  but  the  living  spark, 
the  splendor  and  dignity  of  the  great  religion,  had 
departed  from  Hwang  Ling  Miao. 

The  autumn  nights  were  chill  and  damp  in  the 
gorges,  but  the  days  were  those  of  the  most  perfect 
Indian  summer,  a  mild,  warm,  golden  air  filling  all 
space,  soft  September  hazes  hanging  in  the  distance ; 
and  after  the  radiant,  glowing  yellow  afternoons  there 
were  sunset  pageants  that  lifted  the  Yangtsze  gorges 
to  higher  scenic  rank  in  one's  mind  than  they  perhaps 
deserve. 

Where  the  river  turned  almost  at  a  right  angle 
again,  we  came  to  the  first  rapids,  the  Siau  Lu  Chio 
and  the  Ta  Lu  Chio  (the  Little  and  Great  Deer-horns), 
and  swung  into  line  behind  other  craft,  and  waited 
our  turn  to  be  dragged  up  a  short  mill-race  that  ran 
over  and  between  great  rocks.  Red  life-boats  hovered 
near,  peddlers'  )>oats  went  to  and  fro  with  pots,  pans, 


/^W 

^>»!^'      ^  ..-. 


M^^ 


^? 


A   KWATSZE   ON   THE  YANGTSZE  411 

lanterns,  bowls,  and  food  for  sale,  and  extra  trackers 
squatted  on  the  sands  waiting  to  be  hired.  Extra 
lines  were  put  out  from  bow  and  stern  of  each  ark, 
men  were  stationed  on  rocks  to  wave  signals,  laopans 
began  screaming  in  anticipation,  and  the  ships'  cooks 
by  etiquette  presided  at  the  gong,  whose  taps  signaled 
the  trackers  when  to  start,  stop,  puU  away,  or  let  go. 
A  first  junk,  swinging  away  into  the  froth  of  waters 
with  bedlam  on  board,  hung  motionless,  held  at  bay 
by  a  current  that  has  raced  at  eighteen  miles  an  hour. 
The  trackers  strained  and  bent  double,  their  driver 
ran  mad,  belaboring  the  sands,  the  laopan  reached  his 
fifth  fury,  and  the  junk,  moving  as  slowly  as  the  hour- 
hand  of  a  watch,  finally  breasted  the  last  curls  of 
foam,  and  was  hauled  away  to  smooth  waters.  One 
or  two  junks  hung  irresolute,  slipped  back,  and  with 
new  lines  began  all  over  again. 

Our  turn  came,  and  we  swung  out  and  crept  up  the 
foaming  incline,  and  all  afternoon  we  inched  along  up 
this  reach  of  rapids,  with  moments  of  suspense  and 
hairbreadth  escapes ;  and  just  as  we  rounded  the  dan- 
ger-point, with  a  last  tug  and  yell  from  the  trackers, 
the  mast  at  our  door-siU  gave  way,  toppling  shore- 
ward with  the  strain,  and  nearly  carrying  the  cabin 
with  it.  Then  bedlam  was  ten  times  let  loose ;  but 
somehow,  in  the  general  chaos  of  things,  we  were 
drawn  slowly  inshore  and  on  into  a  snug  little  bight 
cut  back  into  the  high  sand-bank.  It  was  then  sunset, 
the  glowing  west  hidden  by  the  purple  precipice  walls 
that  rose  three  thousand  feet  to  the  splendid  skj^-Iines 
overhead,  the  east  all  melting  rose  and  blue,  and  the 
great  gray  Yosemite  walls  southward  dim  in  shadows. 


412  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

A  dense  fog  shut  us  in  until  ten  o'clock  the  next 
morning,  when  we  poled  out  from  our  sand  slip,  ran 
along  the  bank  a  bit,  and  were  at  the  foot  of  the  Ta 
Dung,  or  Otter  Cave,  Rapids.  As  we  grappled  and 
were  hauled  up  a  chute  between  two  rock  masses,  a 
figure  came  leaping  along  the  boulders,  made  a  des- 
perate slide  down  a  rock  shelf,  and  landed  on  our 
deck— our  long-lost,  red-lettered  Szechuan  soldier,  who 
had  followed  by  foot-paths  and  short  cuts  overland 
from  Ichang,  hunting  the  kwatsze  with  the  flowery- 
flag.  Although  he  had  been  sprinting  across  country 
with  a  heavy  belt  of  cash  weighing  him  down,  the  Sze- 
chuan soldier  lent  a  hand  and  both  lungs,  and  out- 
yelled  every  man  on  board,  although  the  stamping 
laopan  on  top  was  changing  from  red  to  purple  with 
the  fury  of  his  efforts. 

We  worked  through  another  narrow  mill-race  among 
the  rocks,  swung  across  to  another  bit  of  compressed 
current,  and,  with  thumps  and  bangs  along  every 
plank  of  the  kwatsze's  infirm  old  body,  reached  the 
foot  of  the  real  rapid,  and  lined  up  behind  big  junks 
hung  over  with  coils  of  rope,  crates  of  cabbages,  and 
cackling  fowls.  A  junk  swung  out,  and  had  just 
begun  to  work  up  the  white-capped  incline  when  a  big 
boat  came  speeding  down-stream,  sixty  or  eightj^  men 
chanting  at  the  sweep.  The  resistless  current  spun  it 
around  like  a  toy,  shot  it  this  wfiy  and  that  way,  and 
after  three  whirls  in  mid-stream,  sent  it,  head  on,  in 
air-line  toward  the  junk  hanging  in  mid-rapids  at  its 
tow-ropes'  ends.  Just  when  we  should  have  heard  the 
crash,  and  both  junks  should  have  gone  to  splinters, 
when  all  the  air  rang  with  Chinese  yells,  the  runaway 


A  KWATSZE   ON   THE  YANGTSZE  415 

veered  off  at  an  acute  angle,  and  was  soon  diminishing 
in  far  perspective. 

After  a  round  of  rice,  new  cables  were  laid,  extra 
trackers  harnessed,  and  we  swung  far  out  and  faced 
the  foaming  incline.  Ropes  tautened,  the  mast 
creaked,  every  plank  trembled,  and  the  water  boiled 
around  us  as  we  hung  motionless  in  the  seethe  and 
roar  of  the  rapids.  As  we  began  to  move,  a  big  junk, 
with  all  hands  howling  at  the  sweep,  came  in  view 
beyond  the  rapids,  and,  like  those  gone  before,  spun 
around  wildly  and  charged  straight  for  us.  As  the 
drowning  man  reviews  his  past  in  a  flash,  I,  who  was 
about  to  drown,  forecast  my  next  last  moments  and 
foresuffered  the  smash,  the  crash,  the  splintering,  the 
sudden  engulfing  and  sweeping  away  of  my  remains 
and  the  kwatsze's;  but  at  the  seemingly  last  second 
the  destroying  junk  shot  away  without  grazing  us, 
and  there  was  collapse  after  that  agony  of  tension, 
even  the  laopan  silent  on  his  perch  above. 

Old  Wrinkles  was  in  command  forward;  the  Sze- 
chuan  soldier  was  on  deck ;  even  our  silk-clad  boy  lent 
a  hand ;  and  during  certain  seconds,  or  seeming  hours, 
of  agonizing  suspense,  when  our  bow-line  caught,  and 
a  tracker  with  a  life-line  around  him  swam  out  into 
the  lashing  waters  to  disentangle  it,  our  cabin  cook 
woke  from  his  opium  dream,  clambered  to  the  roof, 
and  outyelled  the  captain  on  his  own  stamping-ground. 
Then  a  red  life-boat  rowed  across  our  sunken  line, 
which,  suddenly  tautened,  gave  the  rescue  corps  a 
shock,  of  which  they  volubly  informed  the  village,  the 
valley,  and  the  whole  welkin  space.  The  captain's 
pretty,  moon-faced  wife  crept  from  the  coop  of  a  cabin. 


416  CHINA:  THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

lifted  up  the  deck-plauks,  and  sat  ready  to  bail  out 
with  a  wooden  scoop  clumsier  than  anything  Fue- 
gians  or  prehistoric  man  ever  used. 

We  triumphantly  breasted  the  stiff  flume,  aU  white- 
caps  and  billows  for  a  hundred  yards.  Then  the  din 
ceased,  and  the  trackers  drew  us  in  beside  a  sandy 
reach  covered  with  patches  of  raw  cotton  salved  from 
two  wrecks,  whose  masts  alone  were  visible.  Other 
wrecks  were  laid  up  on  the  sands,  with  all  hands 
mending  ribs,  calking  seams,  spreading  piece-goods 
out  to  dry,  and  dip-netting  tufts  of  cotton  down  from 
eddies  and  back-water  pools. 

All  the  mellow,  radiant  afternoon,  from  rock  to 
rock,  we  banged  along  among  incipient  rapids,  the 
shaky  old  kwatsze  miraculously  holding  together,  the 
trackers  in  and  out  of  water  splashing  stork-like  in 
long,  single  files  through  shallows,  or  scrambling  like 
a  pack  of  beagles  over  sand  and  boulders.  Once,  when 
the  cable  caught  on  a  sunken  rock,  a  tracker  waded 
out,  rolled  up  his  rag  ends  of  trousers  and  waded 
deeper,  felt  for  the  line  with  one  foot  and  then  with 
the  other.  All  on  board  and  on  shore  were  scream- 
ing to  him  wildly,  but  very  deliberately  he  waded  back 
to  a  rock,  left  all  his  precious  clothes  there,  swam  out, 
and  with  one  dive  freed  the  bamboo  rope,  that,  tense 
with  the  strain,  had  been  singing  and  humming  down 
the  mast  like  a  telegraph-wire  in  the  wind.  We  had 
had  chapters  of  accidents,  and  the  epic  of  incident  was 
but  well  begun  at  the  Ta  Dung.  With  the  slacking 
and  tautening  of  our  line,  the  hard  bamboo  cable  had 
dealt  slapping  blows  to  cook  and  crew,  dipped  into 
the  soup-kettle,  upset  the  rice-boiler,  and  lofted  a  cab- 


A  KWATSZE   ON   THE  YANGTSZE  417 

bage  overboard  as  neatly  as  a  golfer's  club.  Then  it 
caught  on  the  pin  at  the  bow  of  one  junk,  and  slipped 
off  with  a  jerk  that  careened  us  against  a  sampan, 
where  a  meditative  fisherman  crouched, ''  reading"  the 
water.  The  stunned  fisherman  leaped  to  his  feet ;  the 
taut  rope  struck  his  wash-bowl  hat,  flicked  it  off  into 
the  Yangtsze,  rolling  rapidly,  and  it  bobbed  away  out 
of  sight,  while  the  beheaded  one  danced  and  cut  capers 
to  maintain  his  footing.  Then  billingsgate  went  back 
and  forth  and  drowned  the  roar  of  waters,  but  not 
a  laopan  or  roustabout  could  match  our  cabin-top 
screamer,  nor  the  scowling  crosspatch  captain  of  the 
bow  boat-hook,  in  frenzied  vituperations.  Once,  in 
shoving  off  a  boat  that  had  as  much  business  to  be 
there  as  our  kwatsze,  the  crosspatch  splintered  and 
dropped  his  boat-hook.  The  whole  crew  burst  into 
execrations,  and  the  laopan  tore  fury  to  tatters. 
Like  a  whipped  cur  he  slunk  overboard,  swam  like 
a  dog  for  the  sticks,  and  lianded  the  fragments  plain- 
tively to  the  cook.  Old  Wrinkles  spliced  them  with 
bamboo  splints  and  paper  string,  cut  the  string  with 
a  cleaver  fit  to  sever  an  ox,  and  went  on  boiling  rice, 
the  most  restful,  delightful  old  creature  in  China. 
Whether  he  pottered  with  his  never-ending  cookery, 
twisted  tobacco-leaves  into  a  loose  thumb-end  cigar 
and  smoked  it  from  a  pipe,  or,  crouching  in  his 
sunken  cockpit  kitchen,  dozed  in  the  soft  autumn  sun- 
shine, while  the  crew  almost  stamped  on  his  ears  and 
threatened  to  brain  him  with  every  oar-stroke,  old 
Wrinkles  was  a  constant  study.  We  had  demonstra- 
tions by  old  Wrinkles  in  practical  navigation  that 
Captain  Lecky's  invaluable  handbook  never  mentions. 


418 


CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 


Passing  junks  threw  their  lines  over  our  mast,  or 
dropped  them  under  the  keel,  or,  crossing  our  lines, 
sawed  them  as  rival  kites  can  saw.  Every  such  marine 
or  riverine  manoeuver  was  accompanied  by  so  much 
language  and  lung-power  that  we  wondered  if  any 


OLD   WKINKLES,   THE  FO'C'5?'LE  COOK. 

life  in  the  world  demanded  so  many  different  and 
high  powers  of  endurance  as  boat  life  on  the  Upper 
Yangtsze. 

We  tied  up  at  the  end  of  this  exciting  day  below 
Lao  Kwan  Miao,  an  ancient  temple  on  a  terrace,  where 
five  wliite  stone  cube  and  pyramid  pedestals  used  to 


A  KWATSZE   ON  THE  YANGTSZE  419 

show  fire-beacons  to  tell  beniglited  travelers  of  an- 
other temple  stage  in  the  river  journey,  as  at  Hwang 
Ling  Miao. 

They  had  bailed  the  boat  every  few  hours  that  day. 
The  captain  had  gone  below  with  a  candle,  and 
stuffed  rags  and  pitch  into  the  yielding  seams  of  the 
boat,  and  twice  in  the  night  he  came  to  examine  the 
hold.  While  we  waited  for  the  dense  morning  fog  to 
clear,  I  took  a  look  below,  and  found  that  the  severe 
knocking  about  that  the  old  kwatsze  had  endured,  in 
the  two  days'  straining  up  the  valley  of  rapids,  had 
loosened  seams  from  stem  to  stern  along  one  whole 
side,  through  which  the  water  slowly  seeped.  A 
transverse  partition  had  sagged  away  two  or  three 
inches  from  the  side-frames  when  the  mast  wrenched 
loose,  and  only  the  special  providence  that  keeps  crazy 
Yangtsze  craft  afloat  had  saved  us  as  we  bumped  and 
banged  our  way  along  the  rocky  shores.  It  was  mad- 
ness to  think  of  straining  the  kwatsze  up  any  more 
rapids,  and  there  was  risk  enough  in  rowing  through 
the  great  Liu-kan  Gorge  to  Tsin  Tan  village,  where 
we  could  repair  or  secure  a  new  kwatsze.  It  depressed 
all  spirits  and  dulled  all  anticipation  and  realization 
of  this  finest  of  all  the  Yangtsze  gorges  to  see  it  at 
such  risk  of  life,  and  every  eddy  and  jutting  rock 
and  swirl  of  current  made  hearts  sink  deeper  as  we 
tracked  up  toward  the  towering  entrance  cliffs.  A 
turn,  and  we  were  within  the  deep  cut ;  dull-red  and 
purplish  cliffs  towered  perpendicularly  one,  two,  and 
three  thousand  feet,  and  the  muddy  river  swirled  at 
their  base.  For  two  miles  there  is  no  ledge  or  shelf 
or  tracker's  foothold  within  that  royal  gorge,  that 


420  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

closely  approaches  that  of  the  Arkansas  above  Canon 
City.  Fantastic  cliffs  and  weatherings  have  given  rise 
to  local  names,  and  the  magnificent  stretch  of  the  Ma- 
fei,  or  Horse-liver,  Gorge  is  named  for  a  gigantic  rock 
excrescence  hanging  high  on  one  waU. 

The  men  had  rowed  frantically  into  the  deep  canon, 
the  body  of  the  infirm  kwatsze  shivering  and  rocking 
as  if  about  to  fall  apart ;  but  when  the  upward  draft 
of  a  breeze  caught  our  sail,  we  went  silently  upward 
against  the  flood  through  a  caiion  worthy  to  match 
with  the  Frasei"'s  and  the  Arkansas's  best. 

One  might  indulge  in  extravagant  raptures  over  this 
magnificent  gorge  had  not  Lu  Yu,  the  mandarin,  out- 
done the  possible  in  his  "  Diary  of  a  Journey  to  Sze- 
chuan  "  (Hangchow,  1170  a.d.).  When  he  came  to  this 
Lao  Kwan  Pass,  the  Liu-kan,  Niu-kan,  or  Ma-fei 
Gorge  of  modern  writers,  he  exclaimed  :  ''In  this  pass 
the  mountains  rise  in  a  thousand  peaks  and  from  ten 
thousand  precipices.  Here  they  struggle  upward  in 
confused  masses,  as  though  in  mutual  rivalry ;  there 
they  shoot  aloft  in  solitary  pinnacles.  In  one  spot 
they  obtrude  in  prostrate  ledges,  appearing  about  to 
fall  and  crush  whatever  is  below ;  in  another  they 
overhang  in  beetling  cliffs,  as  though  on  the  verge  of 
falling  from  their  supports.  Some  are  split  in  trans- 
verse fissures ;  others  are  riven  asunder  from  crown 
to  base.  On  this  side  they  swell  in  convex  shoulders  ; 
on  that  they  sink  in  cavernous  depressions;  and  here, 
again,  are  jagged  and  twisted  in  fantastic  shapes  for 
which  no  embodiment  can  be  found  in  words.  West- 
ward the  j)iled-up  mountains  stand  atliwait  the  way 
like  a  barrier;    but  the  river  rushes  tlirouffh  them 


A  KWATSZE  ON  THE  YANGTSZE  421 

and  forms  for  itself  what  is  known  as  the  Dungeon 
Gorge." 

The  great  walls  part  for  a  space,  and  make  room 
for  a  sloping  hillside,  which  the  village  of  Tsin  Tan 
climbs  in  rock-piled  terraces,  stretching  along  for  a 
half-mile's  length.  A  temple  and  a  few  houses  cling 
to  the  steeper  opposite  bank,  and  between,  the  Yang- 
tsze  roars  and  dashes  over  a  ledge  of  rocks,  where  a 
steep  fall  in  the  river-bed  causes  the  Tsin  Tan  Rapids, 
the  most  dreaded  of  the  river's  obstructions.  Above 
the  echoing  roar  of  the  river  the  canon  resounded 
with  the  beat  of  gongs  and  the  wild  chant  of  trackers 
on  each  shore,  as  junks  hung  quivering  in  the  rapids. 
As  we  threaded  the  high  village  paths,  bands  of  one 
hundred  and  more  trackers  came  yelping  by  in  leash, 
straining  in  harness  until  the  veins  stood  out  on  their 
faces.  Many  were  mere  boys,  wearing  out  their  first 
splendid  strength  in  this  brute  toil,  matching  their 
muscle  against  the  ten-knot  current  for  a  few  miser- 
able coppers  and  some  coarse  food  each  day ;  and  shale 
and  pudding-stone  were  cut  in  grooves  inches  deep, 
where  their  bamboo  hawsers  have  rubbed  for  centuries. 

We  did  not  need  to  watch  the  straining  trackers 
and  the  junks  in  the  rapids,  or  to  see  two  junks  part 
cables  and  sweep  back,  for  us  to  know  that  one  long 
pull  at  our  masthead  in  that  current  would  scatter  the 
kwatsze  planks  like  jack-straws.  As  the  crew  had 
been  definitely  engaged  to  go  as  far  as  Kuei,  two  or 
three  days  farther  in  time,  we  dreaded  mutiny,  or  at 
least  "  bobbery,"  when  we  announced  that  the  kwatsze 
should  go  no  fartlier,  since  the  Chinese  mind  is  always 
aflame   with    suspicions   at   any  deviation   from   an 


422  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

original  plan  or  bargain— at  anything  that  does  not 
''  b'long  custom."  We  were  willing  to  pay  a  pacify- 
ing indemnity,  even,  for  releasing  them  from  the  con- 
tract to  track  and  row  those  additional  miles  to  Kuei ; 
but  knowing  the  lingual  possibilities  of  the  captain,  it 
required  courage  to  break  the  decision  to  that  inflam- 
mable person.  His  looks  were  lowering,  storm-signals 
flew  from  each  eye,  and  the  blue  cotton  Szechuan  tur- 
ban had  a  contradictory  twist  and  cant.  He  was  told 
that  we  would  not  risk  our  lives  any  farther  up-stream 
in  his  kwatsze ;  that  he  could  have  a  day  to  calk  and 
pitch  and  mend,  and  must  then  return  to  Ichang ; 
and  the  face  was  illumined,  the  master  mariner  more 
relieved  than  we.  "The  kwatsze  stays  here.  We 
will  take  a  light  sampan  with  a  sail,  at  the  other  end 
of  the  village,  and  push  as  far  beyond  Mitsang  Gorge 
as  we  can  in  a  day  " ;  and  the  captain  leaped  with  joy, 
and  the  crew  begged  to  man  the  sampan. 

Tsin  Tan  is  most  picturesquely  placed,  is  almost 
Alpine  or  Norwegian  in  environment,  with  the  Yang- 
tsze  rolling  at  its  feet  as  a  greater  Fraser  in  a  greener 
setting.  The  magnificent  profiles  of  the  Mitsang  walls 
and  the  lines  of  the  Liu-kan  gateway  are  both  in  view 
from  the  village,  and  when  steam-navigation  is  es- 
tablished Tsin  Tan's  outlook  will  be  far-famed.  Rows 
of  village  women  gaped  and  grinned  at  us,  their  chil- 
dren's red,  green,  and  orange  coats  the  only  touches 
of  color  in  town,  save  for  the  heaped  oranges  and 
pomeloes  for  sale  by  the  river-bank.  Swine  roamed 
everywhere,  and  men  staggered  up  and  down  steep 
paths  with  baskets  of  coal  and  country  produce  on 
their  backs. 


A  KWATSZE   ON   THE  YANGTSZE  423 

Once  embarked  on  the  river  above  the  rapids  in  a 
sampan,  that  seemed  to  skim  like  a  bird  after  the 
clumsy  creep  of  the  kwatsze,  we  could  enjoy  the  wild 
scenery  without  distraction  or  panic.  When  well 
within  the  walls  of  the  Mitsang  (Rice-granary)  Gorge, 
the  breeze  took  the  sail  and  floated  our  speck  of  a 
boat  up  the  flooded  crevice  between  stupendous 
cliffs.  Folds  of  slate  and  shale  and  sandstone  and 
gi'easy  black  veins  of  coal  rose  from  the  river  as  the 
limestone  dipped  under,  and  vines  and  bushes  cling- 
ing to  every  crevice  made  gorgeous  autumn  pageant 
along  the  palisades.  The  Mitsang  Gorge  was  scenic 
delight  worth  all  the  effort  of  reaching  it,  and  too 
soon  we  came  out  from  its  gateway  and  to  green  hills 
rising  softly  from  a  crystal-clear  stream  by  the  town 
of  Shansi.  Beyond  this  next  valley  of  rapids  lay 
Kuei,  our  intended  goal,  and  on  beyond  that  busy 
boating-town  are  the  Wushan,  Wind-box,  Fairy,  and 
other  gorges,  which  it  is  a  matter  of  weeks  to 
traverse,  unloading  and  changing  to  a  new  kwatsze 
on  the  other  side  of  the  impassable  New  Rapids, 
formed  by  a  landslide  in  1896.  The  scenery  of  these 
upper  gorges  is  of  the  same  order,  but  continues  in 
longer  stretches  than  in  the  Liu-kan  and  Mitsang 
gorges. 

When  we  had  shot  down-stream  in  the  late  after- 
noon, and  into  the  gulf  of  blue  gloom  within  the 
Mitsang's  steep  walls,  the  wind,  in  regular  Alaskan 
Willi waws,  played  with  our  sampan  alarmingly.  Gusts 
struck  spray  from  tlie  water,  made  swirls,  and  bored 
eddies  that  sucked  down  our  bow  and  sent  us  reeling 
down  the  canon.     We  met  many  such  small  mael- 


424  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

stroms,  rowed  through  chow-chow  water  in  stretches, 
but  finally  reached  Tsin  Tan  beach,  and  the  protec- 
tion of  the  American  flag  in  our  kwatsze  beyond. 
The  relic  had  been  patched  and  mended  a  bit,  tacked 
and  pasted  together,  and  we  promised  presents  all 
round  if,  starting  at  six  in  the  morning,  the  crew 
could  reach  Ichang  by  six  at  night. 

When  the  early  tea-tray  was  pushed  in,  the  boy  an- 
swered that  the  cook  and  crew  were  all  on  board. 
We  counted  ten  men  at  the  bows  gobbling  down 
their  first  rice,  and  the  captain  was  told  to  shove  off 
at  once.  Then  our  boy  said  with  embarrassment, 
"  One  piece  cook  no  have  got."  The  piece  of  a  cook 
had  just  gone  up-town  to  get  some  money  that  a  cousin 
owed  him,  he  said.  We  waited  a  quarter  of  an  hour, 
then  ten  minutes  of  the  soft,  still,  warm,  early  day, 
smoke  rising  straight  in  air  from  each  village,  and 
every  detail  of  canon  walls  and  distant  peaks  exqui- 
sitely clear  in  that  pure,  pale  light.  No  one  was  in 
sight  on  the  shining  shingle,  and  we  told  the  captain 
to  let  go,  he  incredulous,  and  the  crew  gi'inning  in 
foolish  amaze  at  the  idea  of  white  travelers  severed 
from  a  cook.  Although  bewildered,  they  bent  to  their 
poles,  and,  once  in  mid-stream,  the  boy  recovered 
from  stupefaction  and  admitted  that  the  cook  had 
gone  ashore  the  night  before,  to  return  before  day- 
break, and  that  the  debtor-cousin  story  was  a  fiction 
and  excuse  of  the  moment.  The  cook  was  probably 
asleep  in  some  opium  den,  as  he  had  smoked  and  slept 
all  the  way  up-stream,  leaving  the  boy,  with  the  aid 
of  the  captain's  wife,  to  do  nearly  all  the  cooking; 
thus  the  miracle  of  om*  well-served  dinners  was  all  the 


A  KWATSZE   ON  THE   YANGTSZE  425 

more  amazing.  While  the  boy  and  the  captain's  wife 
looked  to  coffee,  toast,  and  bacon,  one  of  the  little 
mud  stoves  of  the  country  was  brought  to  the  front, 
its  lumps  of  charcoal  glowing,  and  in  that  primitive 
chafing-dish  eggs  scrambled  in  boiling  milk  at  last 
materialized.  While  I  stirred  the  frothing  mass,  the 
whole  crew  watched  agape,  and  the  captain's  head 
hung  down  from  overhead  to  witness  the  amazing 
spectacle  of  a  foreigner  acting  as  cook.  It  was  a 
cheerful  ship's  crew  all  day  long  as  they  urged  and 
drove  the  kwatsze  on  toward  their  extra  gratuities, 
and  at  the  very  mention  of  cook  all  burst  into  laughter, 
and  old  Wrinkles  wiped  tears  away. 

There  were  such  pale-blue  mists  and  lilac  lights  in 
the  Liu-kan  Gorge  that  the  splendid  precipice  walls 
were  transfigured,  the  great  canon  far  more  impressive 
than  when  we  had  passed  through  before,  dejected,  in 
a  sinking  kwatsze.  We  raced  down  the  valley  of 
rapids,  in  contrast  to  our  toilsome  ascent,  whizzing 
past  rocks  and  through  mill-races,  plunging  and 
spinning  around  as  we  had  enviously  watched  other 
downward  craft  do  when  we  were  hanging  inert  at 
the  ropes'  ends.  We  made  a  headlong  dash  at  a  junk 
in  Ta  Dung  Rapids,  shot  away  one  second  before  the 
collision  was  due,  and  went  pirouetting  down-stream. 
The  crew  worked  a  great  sweep-oar  rigged  at  the  bow 
to  keep  the  kwatsze's  head  on  its  course,  the  captain 
swung  the  clumsy  tiller-beam  without  exhortations, 
and  the  current  did  the  rest.  By  noon  we  reached 
the  Needle  of  Heaven  and  the  entrance  of  Ichang 
Gorge,  Diamond  Hill  Temple  shining  like  a  white 
bird  far  in  air,  and  the  line  of  fantastic,  gray.  Troll- 


426  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

tinder-y  peaks  stretching  along  this  water-floored 
Romsdal. 

By  noon  the  upward  wind  was  felt.  Gusts  swooped 
down  from  the  heights,  spun  the  kwatsze  round,  and 
bored  whirlpools  at  our  bows.  We  had  retraced  five 
days'  journeys  then,  and  while  we  drifted  in  aimless 
circles  the  crew  fortified  themselves  with  a  vegetarian 
lunch,  bowl  after  bowl  of  cabbage-soup  and  rice  re- 
storing their  brawn  and  tissue.  Then  they  laid  to 
their  oars,  or  hop-poles,  with  a  will,  even  a  pale  Sze- 
chuan  scholar,  who  was  working  his  passage  down- 
stream, stamping  with  the  rest.  Once  an  oar  snapped, 
and  it  took  a  miserable  quarter  of  an  hour  to  put 
about  and  manoeuver  to  recover  it  in  that  bottomless 
gorge  where  none  dared  swim.  Old  Wrinkles  squared 
the  splintered  ends  with  his  cleaver,  spliced  them 
firmly,  and  the  crew  resumed  chant  and  stamp,  vexing 
the  Yangtsze  with  their  broken  strokes  until  the  cur- 
rent caught  us.  It  was  the  rarest  of  all  our  autumn 
days,  and  we  basked  in  the  sun,  and  feasted  eyes 
again  on  the  splendidly  splintered  and  buttressed 
walls,  the  caves  and  high-hung  temples,  the  bridges 
and  rock  inscriptions,  and  the  procession  of  striped 
sails  creeping  at  their  feet.  We  dipped  the  ensign 
and  flew  past  Pin-shan-pa  customs-station,  behind 
which  the  palisade  of  seamed  and  broken  marble 
strata,  overgrown  with  vines,  so  easily  suggests  a 
tropical  temple  ruin.  We  passed  the  gateway  at  full 
speed  at  sunset  hour,  and  were  fast  at  Icliang  jetty 
at  the  appointed  time,  ready  to  kneel  with  flag  in 
thanksgi\'ing,  like  Columbus  in  the  picture. 

At  ten  o'clock  tlie  next  night  the  boy  came  grinning 


£    V  'I 


A  KWATSZE  ON  THE  YANGTSZE  429 

to  US.  "  That  cook  want  money ;  just  now  come." 
And  then  it  was  related  how  the  cook,  strolling  down 
to  Tsin  Tan's  shore  at  his  leisure,  found  the  kwatsze 
gone  hours  before.  Giving  his  coat  as  security  for 
his  passage-money,  he  embarked  on  a  downward  junk, 
sure  of  finding  us  tied  up  and  waiting  around  some 
corner  for  the  cook  to  prepare  the  tiffin.  He  had 
dealt  with  foreigners  before,  and  knew  their  feints 
and  helplessness.  Another  garment  went  to  a  second 
and  swifter  craft,  until,  changing  from  junk  to  junk, 
he  had  arrived  shivering  in  his  last  thin  garments,  a 
full  day  behind  us,  but  asking  to  be  paid  for  that  day 
and  his  down-stream  traveling  expenses. 

While  it  was  swift  and  easy  to  descend  the  Yangtsze 
by  kwatsze,  our  difficulties  began  with  steam-naviga- 
tion. It  was  difficilis  descensus  Yangtsze  then.  After 
vexatious  delays,  we  twice  embarked,  twice  had  the 
machinery  break  down,  and  twice  were  taken  back  to 
Ichang,  arriving  finally  in  Hankow  on  a  third  steamer, 
which  lost  one  propeller  on  the  tedious  down  trip. 
From  palm-trees  and  orange-trees  in  the  gorges  of  the 
far  interior  range,  we  traveled  to  snow-striped  hills 
around  Nanking,  and  to  hard  frost  at  Shanghai,  31° 
15'  N.,  a  thousand  miles  nearer  the  sea-coast  than 
Ichang,  30O  42'  N. 


XXVII 

THE  CITY  OF   CANTON 

jHE  free  city  of  Victoria,  in  the  British 
island  colony  of  Hongkong,  is  so  splen- 
didly built,  and  so  well  placed  on  the 
steep  slope  of  a  mountain  overlooking 
its  broad  harbor  and  opposite  Kowloon, 
that  it  only  needs  the  fashion  to  be  set,  for  some 
one  to  begin  raving,  to  select,  cut  and  dry  the  epi- 
thets, for  every  visitor  to  voice  extravagant  praises 
of  this  city  of  real  palaces,  more  nearly  the  Mag- 
nificent or  the  Superb  than  hillside  Genoa.  It  is 
strikingly  Mediterranean  in  many  aspects,  and  from 
the  higher  terraces  of  streets  one  hears  just  that 
same  roar  of  voices  rising  from  the  crowded  Chinese 
quarter  as  ascends  to  San  Martino  from  the  busy 
streets  of  Naples.  There  is  a  second  city,  a  hanging 
suburb  in  the  clouds  at  the  summit  of  the  Peak,  and 
only  British  dignity  could  survive  being  pulled  up 
and  dropped  down  from  the  clouds  backward  in  those 
most  primitive  cable-cars.  With  Highlanders,  Fusi- 
liers, and  Sepoy  regiments  deploying  through  Queen's 
Road,  and  all  the  brown  and  yellow  races  of  Asia 

430 


THE  CITY  OF   CANTON  431 

streaming  through  the  arcades  and  the  staircase 
streets,  Hongkong  is  so  spectacular,  picturesque,  dra- 
matic, and  fascinating  that  one  never  tires  of  its 
moving  panoramas.  The  wonderfully  blue  harbor  is 
crowded  with  merchant  steamers  and  junks,  brown 
butterfly-sails  wing  here  and  there,  and  men-of-war 
of  all  nations  make  the  mountains  ring  with  their 
echoing  salutes.  Imperial,  free,  modern,  and  enlight- 
ened Hongkong  gives  the  American  citizen  cause  to 
consider  when  he  finds  himself  landing  and  leaving 
without  having  encountered  the  custom-house.  There 
is  none,  yet  the  colony  prospers. 

River  steamers  built  after  American  models,  but 
finished  and  furnished  with  Spartan  simplicity  com- 
pared with  those  gilded  originals,  carry  one  at  an  ex- 
travagant charge  up  the  eighty  miles  of  the  Pearl 
River  to  Canton.  The  lines  of  a  projected  railway 
have  long  been  drawn  on  maps  across  the  rice-fields 
of  southern  Kwangtung,  but  obstructing  officials  do 
not  intend  that  one  shall  comfortably  take  train 
from  Kowloon  to  Canton  until  their  last  device  is 
exhausted. 

And  what  a  medley  one  meets  when  the  paddles 
cease  churning,  and  the  white  river  boat  drifts  in 
among  acres  of  flimsy  little  brown  boats  and  ties 
up  at  the  Canton  wharf !  All  the  eighty  thousand 
boats  of  the  water  population  seem  fighting  for  first 
places  at  the  steamer's  guards,  and  the  voices  of  the 
three  million  of  the  city's  land-dwelling  people  come 
to  one  in  a  great  undertone  like  the  far-away  roar  of 
angry  surf.  One  retreats  from  the  howling  coolies 
on  the  wharf  to  the  half-acre  of  boat-women  scream- 


432  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

ing  and  scolding  at  the  river  gangway,  and  is  dazed 
with  the  uproar  and  confusion  of  it  all  when  depos- 
ited in  a  rocking  cockle-shell,  and  sculled  away  by 
the  historic  "  Susan,"  in  her  exquisitely  clean  sampan, 
that  is  at  once  family  dwelling  and  hotel  omnibus. 
One  creaks  along  the  vociferous  riverside,  and  away 
to  quieter  waters  in  the  back  canal  that  separates 
Shameen  Island  from  the  city  proper.  The  foreign 
concession  of  Shameen  is  an  oval  of  reclaimed  land 
bunded  all  around,  bordered  with  shade-trees,  and  cut 
by  grassy,  banian-shaded  avenues  where  beautiful 
villas  are  surrounded  with  flowers,  and  birds  sing 
as  if  in  Arcadia.  The  strange  undertone  of  the  far- 
away voices  soon  disillusions  one  as  to  the  genuine- 
ness of  this  Arcadia,  and  a  foreign  gunboat  is  always 
at  anchor  off  the  bund,  to  defend  and  rescue  in  emer- 
gencies, and  to  direct  the  campaign  against  the  pi- 
rates, whose  activities  on  the  West  River  have  exactly 
offset  the  benefits  secured  by  the  concession  of  the 
free  navigation  of  inland  waterways.  The  exiles  on 
Shameen  have  their  public  gardens  and  tennis-courts, 
their  club  and  little  theater,  and  two  hotels.  Their 
own  police  guard  the  gates  of  two  iron  bridges  that 
span  the  canal,  and  Chinese  soldiers  lounge  at  guard- 
houses at  each  bridge,  startling  one  day  and  night  by 
trumpetings,  tom-tomings,  and  pistol-shots  that  are 
intended  to  assure  the  community  that  all  is  well. 
Yet  the  mob  assaulted  Shameen  fifteen  years  ago, 
and  the  blackened  walls  of  the  houses  they  looted  and 
burned  stood  as  reminders  for  some  seasons. 

Fluent,  parroty,  English-speaking    native    guides 
besiege  one  at  the  steamer  and  take  visitors  in  pro- 


THE   CITY   OF  CANTON  433 

cessions  of  sedan-chairs  around  and  across  the  city  to 
all  the  great  sights  and  the  shops  —  the  guide  always 
borne  ahead  in  a  tasseled  chair  of  state  by  the  best 
coolies,  and  his  charges  following  in  any  sort  of  chairs 
picked  up  at  the  nearest  stand.  The  great  man  goes 
first,  his  bearers  shouting  to  clear  the  way,  and  for- 
eigners follow  as  underlings  and  retainers  in  an  offi- 
cial's train,  a  reversal  of  proprieties  and  etiquette 
immensely  pleasing  to  Chinese  vanity  and  sense  of 
humor.  Street  children  jeer ;  larger  enemies  make 
faces  and  the  cutthroat  sign,  and  hurl  epithets  and 
invectives  after  one — "she-devil,"  "old  granny,"  and 
"  old  hag  "  the  only  ones  that  bear  translating.  The 
foreigner  is  best  hated  in  Canton  of  all  Chinese  cities, 
for  foreign  soldiers  have  not  only  held  its  walls,  but 
turned  their  guns  on  the  city  with  effect.  After  the 
courtesy  of  the  Japanese  guide  or  the  cringing  abase- 
ment of  the  Hindu  traveling  servant,  the  brusque, 
laconic  responses  and  commands  of  the  Cantonese 
guides  ruffle  one.  "Yes,"  "No,"  blurts  the  mentor. 
"  Get  into  your  chair,"  "  Jump  into  this  shop," 
"  Come  this  side,"  and  other  direct  orders  irritate  some 
tempers  amusingly.  The  guides  often  know  better, 
but  it  tickles  their  sense  of  humor,  it  is  a  delicious 
Chinese  joke,  to  order  foreigners  about  in  the  exact 
tones  and  phrases  they  have  heard  Shameen  residents 
use  to  their  coolies. 

To  the  steady  slap-slap  of  bare  feet,  one  is  borne 
swiftly  through  the  narrow  slits  of  streets,  aisles  in  a 
great  exposition  of  the  products  and  industries,  the 
riches  and  utilities  of  this  capital  of  South  China, 
greatest  city  of  the  empire  and  almost  of  the  world 


434  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

in  the  number  of  its  inhabitants.  There  are  the  same 
open  alcove  shops,  the  same  gold-lettered,  black  and 
vermilion  *'  beckoning-boards,"  and  the  streets  of  the 
Thousand  Beatitudes,  of  the  Ascending  Dragon,  and 
of  Early  Bestowed  Blessings  all  swarm  with  the 
same  blue-cotton-  and  black-glazed-calico-clad  people 
one  has  seen  in  the  other  cities  of  the  empire  of  the 
great  unwashed.  There  is  a  little  court  of  silk,  sil- 
ver, porcelain,  and  teak-wood  shops  near  Shameen, 
where  one  buys  the  same  grass-cloth  or  ramie-fiber 
cloth,  the  crapes,  silks,  gauzes,  embroideries,  carved 
ivories,  and  lacquers  that  went  from  these  same  shops 
and  firms  in  the  East  India  Company's  day  —  few 
changes  in  commercial  fashions  in  a  century.  In  Tai- 
sing-kai,  or  Jadestone  Street,  curio-shops  abound  — 
too  nearly  junk-shops,  now  that  the  country  has  for 
so  many  years  responded  to  European  demands  for 
Chinese  art  objects.  One  is  dizzied  in  trying  to  watch 
both  sides  of  the  street  at  once,  to  catch  all  the  genre 
pictures  and  tableaux  framed  in  each  shadow-box 
shop,  and  is  deafened  with  the  shouts  of  the  chair- 
coolies,  the  backbiting  and  vituperation  of  pedestri- 
ans hustled  to  the  wall  by  the  procession  of  hated 
foreigners. 

Gasping  fish  in  tubs  of  water,  bleeding  fish,  and 
joints  are  the  attractions  at  restaurant  doors,  and 
the  tinkle  and  twang  of  musical  instruments  beyond 
brass-plated  stairways  are  other  allurements.  People 
haggle  over  repulsive  meats  and  offal,  and  troop  home 
with  bits  of  cat-meat  hanging  from  a  finger  by  a  loop 
of  bamboo  packthread.  Dried  ducks  with  bodies  flat- 
tened and  necks  stretched  to  swan-like  lengths,  and 


THE   CITY  OF  CANTON  437 

dried  rats  with  curly,  grape-vine  tendril  tails,  are  sold 
at  delicatessen-shops,  the  latter  titbits  warranted  to 
quicken  the  hearing  and  to  make  the  hair  grow  luxu- 
riantly. Rats,  alive  in  cages,  are  often  seen  for  sale 
in  the  streets,  and  everywhere  one  sees  gorgeous  heaps 
of  red  and  yellow  fruits  —  oranges,  cumquats,  pome- 
loes,  limes,  bananas,  lychees,  loquats,  mangoes,  caram- 
bolas,  and  persimmons  in  their  different  seasons.  / 

C  The  courtyard  of  the  Temple  of  Horrors  shows  one 
realistic  pictures  of  the  debased  Buddhist  hell  —  the 
boiling  in  oil,  flaying  alive,  pounding  in  mortars, 
sawing  in  two,  broiling  on  gridirons,  slicing  and  be- 
heading of  sinners,  and  even  the  transmigration  of 
an  offending  soul,  its  last  body  assuming  horns  and 
hoofs  before  one's  eyes.  This  popular  temple  of  the 
people  is  gathering-place  for  letter-writers,  fortune- 
tellers, doctors,  barbers,  menders,  and  for  dentists,  who 
swing  strings  of  their  patients'  teeth  almost  in  one's 
face.  There  are  loafers  and  loathsome  beggars  in 
plenty,  but  few  worshipers,  and  one  gladly  obeys  the 
command,  "  Go,  jump  in  your  chair,"  and  visits  the 
Temple  of  the  Five  Genii,  who  gave  five  food-grains 
to  man.  At  Buddha's  Footprint,  dirty  street  urchins 
leap  over  and  measure  their  feet  against  the  sacred 
stones,  but  at  the  Flowery  Forest  Monastery,  or  the 
Temple  of  the  Five  Hundred  Genii,  the  guardian  bars 
them  out,  and  one  may  offer  incense  in  peace  to  the 
gilded,  imperial  image  of  Kienlung  and  to  Marco  Polo, 
grinning  beneath  a  tarpaulin  sailor-hat,  an  expectant 
bodhisattva.    | 

The  famous  clepsydra,  or  water-clock,  of  Canton  is 
housed  in  a  temple  on  the  city  walls.    "We  went  into  a 


438  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

sort  of  rubbish-room  and  sat  down  to  wait  until  the 
expected  bargaining  should  be  concluded  and  we  were 
free  to  enter  some  further  hall,  the  supposed  splendid 
Temple  of  Time.  ''Lady,  jump  down.  Lady  sitting 
Canton  ancient  water-clock,"  said  Ah  Poll,  our  swag- 
gering parrot  of  a  guide ;  for  three  big  earthen  jars 
on  successive  shelves  beside  us,  a  fourth  and  low- 
est one  with  a  wooden  cover,  constituted  the  whole 
clepsydra,  and  we  had  unwittingly  sat  down  upon  a 
quarter-section  of  all  time.  The  water  descends  by 
slow  drops  from  one  jar  to  the  other,  the  brass  scale 
on  a  float  in  the  last  crock  telling  the  hours  as  it  rises. 
Every  afternoon  at  five  o'clock  since  1321  a.d.  the 
lowest  jar  has  been  emptied,  the  upper  one  filled,  and 
the  clock  thus  wound  up  for  another  day.  Boards 
with  the  number  of  the  hour  are  displayed  on  the 
outside  wall,  that  the  city  may  know  the  time,  and 
from  the  wall's  edge  one  looks  over  acres  of  black- 
tiled  roofs,  with  jars  of  water  as  fire-buckets,  and 
drying  orange-peel  on  every  roof,  only  the  square 
towers  of  pawn-shops  rising  from  the  level. 

We  followed  our  leader  in  a  foot-race  down  a 
narrow  alley  until  it  widened  into  what  seemed  a  pot- 
ter's back  yard,  encumbered  with  jars  and  clay  and 
other  rubbish.  "  This  is  Execution-Ground,"  said  the 
complacent  one,  and  disillusionment  scored  another 
record  at  this  blank,  featureless,  contracted  place  of 
such  gruesome,  great  reputation.  There  was  one 
skull  in  a  wooden  cage  —  head  of  a  rebel  who  had 
been  fastened  to  a  cross  and  sliced  to  death  a  month 
before.  This  Ungchih,  the  lingering  death,  was 
decreed   to  Kang  Yu  Wei,   if  captured  alive,  while 


THE   EXECUTION-GKOUNU  AT   CANTON 


THE  CITY  OF  CANTON  441 

plain  beheading  was  allotted  to  all  his  family,  uncles, 
aunts,  and  cousins.  A  legion  of  street  Arabs  somer- 
saulted over  the  potter's  jars,  wayfaring  starers  closed 
around  us,  and  escaping,  we  poured  more  camphor 
and  cologne  on  handkerchiefs,  and  went  to  the  city 
prison,  where  only  wooden  bars  and  wooden  doors 
restrained  the  prisoners.  All  of  Chinese  filth  and  dis- 
order were  intensified  there,  and  a  score  of  prisoners 
in  heavy  chains  lolled  in  the  courtyard,  smoking  ciga- 
rettes given  by  preceding  visitors.  They  yelled  wildly 
and  clanked  toward  us — horrible  creatures,  with  eyes 
shining  brightly  from  semi-starvation,  who  clamored 
for  cumshaws,  for  money  to  buy  them  rice  or  release, 
or  to  gamble  with  their  jailers.  Other  prisoners, 
feeble  and  hardly  human  in  aspect,  dragged  withered 
old  bodies  out  from  dirt-floored  lairs  to  beg,  too.  "We 
looked  in  at  the  women  prisoners,  a  wild-eyed,  clam- 
orous, fierce,  and  insistent  band  of  beggars,  like  their 
brethren  —  all  save  one  comical,  ancient  prisoner  in 
owlish  spectacles,  who  smiled,  swung  her  dwarf  stumps 
of  feet  from  a  stool,  and  went  on  mending  rags.  This 
ancient  charmer  had  murdered  her  husband  to  run 
away  with  a  younger  man ;  but  the  law  was  invoked, 
and  the  yamun  runner  said  she  would  soon  be  tried 
and  taken  to  the  place  where  the  potter's  jars  stand  — 
lingchih,  maybe;  anyhow,  he  knew  beforehand  that 
she  was  sure  to  be  executed.  Justice  and  clemency 
are  equally  market  commodities  in  China,  and  the 
spectacled  lady,  having  no  money,  had  naturally  no 
friends  nor  chances.  He  could  not  explain  why  in 
a  city  of  three  million  inhabitants  only  this  handful 
of  prisoners  seemed  to  have  broken  the  laws ;  whether 


442  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

the  power  of  the  family  tribunals  and  the  dreadful 
punishments  in  the  yamun  deterred  complainants 
and  offenders,  or  whether  only  such  penniless  ones 
and  outcasts  ever  reached  the  jails. 

Few  can  endure  the  scenes  in  a  Chinese  court  of 
justice,  the  punishments  and  tortures  in  the  judge's 
presence,  and  after  seeing  splendidly  decorated  gild- 
halls  and  the  Examination  Hall,  a  lesser  copy  of  the 
one  at  Peking,  the  chairs  wended  along  past  the  Mo- 
hammedan tower  to  the  city  gates  and  walls.  CTwo 
mosques,  with  actively  proselytizing  priests,  keep  the 
five  or  six  thousand  of  the  faithful  together  in  Can- 
ton, and  some  theorists  say  that  the  Chinese  mind 
accepts  Mohammedan  tenets  so  easily  that,  if  ever 
Christianized,  it  must  be  by  first  converting  the  Chi- 
nese to  Islam,  and  from  that  to  Christianity."\ 

The  grass  grows  rankly  and  old  cannons  lie  neg- 
lected on  the  city  walls,  from  whose  towers  one  has 
view  over  the  great  monotonous  plain  of  tiled  roofs 
of  the  city,  and  of  the  valleys  of  tombs  and  beehive 
graves  outside  the  walls.  After  all  one  sees  and 
smells  in  this  unspeakable  city  of  dreadful  dirt,  one 
can  believe  how  epidemics  of  disease  can  rage.  It  is 
the  wonder  that  any  inhabitants  survive  under  con- 
ditions that  oppose  every  law  of  hygiene  and  theory 
of  sanitation.  When  the  black  or  bubonic  plague 
began  its  ravaging  of  Asia  by  a  first  outbreak  here  in 
1894,  an  estimate  of  the  number  of  deaths  could  only 
be  anived  at  by  the  tally  of  coflfins  carried  out  through 
the  city  gates  to  this  graveyard  suburb.  No  quaran- 
tining, no  isolating,  cleansing,  disinfecting,  tearing 
down,  or  burning  went  on,  the  drains  and  the  rats 


THE  CITY  OF  CANTON 


443 


bred  aud  spread  the  plague  at  will,  under  ideal  con- 
ditions for  bacilliculture.  It  ceased  after  a  second 
season  and  has  not  recurred  in  epidemic  form,  while 
in  India,  where  Rudyard  Kipling  says  the  Hindus  are 
"  sanitating  saints "  compared  with  the  Chinese,  the 
plague  continues,  increasing  in  virulence  year  after 
year  at  Bombay,  where  all  of  European  medical 
science  and  skill  and  sanitary  science  are  arrayed 
against  it. 


^ 


ilVE-STORIJJD   PAGOUA  OX    CITY    WALL.   CANTON. 


XXVIII 

THE   CHINESE   NEW   YEAR 

lEW  YEAR'S  in  Canton  is  the  fete  dear- 
est to  the  Chinese  heart,  and  the  season 
when  Chinese  cities  are  outwardly  dull- 
est and  least  interesting  to  visitors. 
The  first  moon  of  the  year  shows  itself 
in  our  February,  toward  the  end  of  the  soft,  mild 
winter,  when  the  weather  is  usually  warm  at  noonday 
and  barely  chilly  at  night;  but  sometimes  relentless 
northers  blow,  and  Shameen's  spacious  houses,  with 
their  double  pierced  ceilings,  sing  like  ^olian  harps 
with  drafts,  and  beggars  die  of  exposure  in  the  sun- 
less city  streets,  where  the  penetrating  chill  and  damp- 
ness benumb  one.  There  is  feverish  activity  before 
the  New  Year,  when  everything  is  rushed  for  the 
grand  accounting,  the  collecting  and  debt-paying  of 
the  year.  Art  treasures  appear  in  curio-shops,  are 
hawked  about  the  streets  and  at  night  fairs.  Lan- 
tern-shops overflow,  and  picture-shops  are  all-impor- 
tant. There  are  temporary  shops  hung  round  with 
modern  daubs,  "sales"  of  forged  old  masters,  and 
sets  of  fine  old  pictures  and  albums  come  to  light, 

444 


A  CANTON    STKEET. 


THE  CHINESE  NEW  YEAR  447 

unusual  finds  in  this  field,  which  the  French,  the  very 
grasshoppers  of  the  Orient  art  world,  long  ago  gleaned 
to  the  stubble. 

The  annual  house-cleaning  occurs  before  the  New 
Year,  and  one  must  be  there  and  see  to  believe  that 
even  such  a  travesty  is  attempted.  There  is  much 
swashing  and  swabbing  with  cold  water  at  the  front 
door ;  red  papers  and  tinsel  charms  are  pasted  on  the 
lintels,  the  dirt  is  flicked  farther  into  dark  corners, 
pictures  are  hung  up,  flower-vases  are  filled,  and  all 
Canton  sits  down  in  its  best  silks  to  a  fortnight's  feast 
behind  closed  doors.  Mile  after  mile  of  empty  streets 
show  only  boarded  shop-fronts,  and  if  one  gains  en- 
trance or  finds  an  open  door,  the  proprietors  are  ab- 
sent, or  sit  yawning,  absolutely  indifferent  to  trade. 
After  the  midnight  services  at  the  Emperor's  temple, 
when  all  the  officials  kotow,— a  certain  profession  of 
allegiance,— the  crowds  vanish  from  the  streets,  and 
busy,  commercial  Canton  is  as  if  turned  to  stone, 
while  the  first  moon  of  the  year  waxes. 

The  stone  houses  and  courts  are  fitted  together  like 
a  puzzle ;  there  are  no  parks,  open  spaces,  boulevards, 
or  breathing-places  within  the  city  walls  save  temple 
courts,  and  for  a  holiday  the  Cantonese  bar  the  doors 
and  sit  down  to  a  feast.  Otherwise  they  go  to  the 
great  flotilla  of  flower-boats,  gilded  and  mirror-lined 
restaurants,  and  cafes  chantant,  where  poor  little 
"sing-song  girls,"  in  gorgeous  clothes  and  coiffures, 
mince  and  pose  on  their  tiny  feet,  sing  and  twang  the 
lute.  Besides  visiting  ancestral  graves,  pleasure- 
seekers  may  walk  in  slow  procession  the  crowded 
paths  of  the  Fa-Ti  gardens,  nurseries  where  the  hun- 


448  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

dreds  of  potted  plants  repeat  the  same  feats  of 
dwarfing,  forcing,  and  training.  Rows  of  evergreen 
dogs,  lions,  men  and  women,  have  artificial  heads, 
hands,  and  feet  cunningly  introduced;  stems  are 
trained  to  form  the  characters  for  joy  and  long  life, 
and  even  the  stiff  bamboo  is  bent  at  will  and  made  to 
writhe  in  serpentine  curves.  Branches  of  white 
plum,  double  peach,  almond,  and  quince,  and  pots  of 
royal  peonies,  are  the  proper  New  Year  decorations. 
Kwei-hua  {Olea  fragrans)  and  narcissus  bulbs  are 
everywhere — silver  and  gold  kwei-hua,  tall  and  short 
and  "  crab's-claw "  narcissus,  the  latter  a  grotesque 
ball  of  recurved  shoots  and  fragrant  blossoms. 

This  holiday  life  would  be  the  death  of  Europeans 
or  Anglo-Saxons,  and  such  a  holiday  season  a  peniten- 
tial season  to  other  races.  Chinese  spirits  and  emo- 
tions find  vent  in  touching  off  strings  and  packs  of 
fire-crackers  all  day  and  all  night  long;  food  and 
money  and  drink  are  thrown  into  the  river  to  propi- 
tiate the  dragon  and  the  evil  spirits  for  the  year. 
Money  is  literally  burned;  the  poorest  deny  them- 
selves to  "  chin-chin  joss  "  with  false  gold-leaf  and  fire- 
crackers, while  the  still  poorer  starve  and  die  where 
the  fusillades  are  fiercest  and  the  "  lie  money  "  flutters 
thickest. 

The  more  spectacular  and  active  Cantonese  fete  is  in 
midsummer,  on  the  fifth  day  of  the  fifth  moon,  when 
the  water-dragon  of  the  Pearl  River  must  be  bribed 
and  intimidated.  Pandemonium  is  then  let  loose 
upon  the  air,  and  the  Cantonese  have  a  heavenly  feast 
of  noise ;  thousands  of  gongs,  millions  of  fire-crackers, 
and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  ear-splitting  voices  as- 


TUE  CKOOKKD   BAMBOO,    FA-TI   GAKDENS,    CANTON. 


THE  CHINESE  NEW  YEAR  451 

sailing  the  di-agon  at  once,  begging  him  not  to  steal 
and  devour  boat-people,  or  consume  the  food-offerings 
thrown  to  the  soul  of  the  statesman  founder  of  the 
festival.  Crazy,  jointed  dragon  boats  sweep  up  and 
down  the  river-front,  slam-banging  with  gongs  and 
cymbals ;  tons  of  boiled  rice  and  gallons  of  rice  brandy 
are  consumed  in  offerings ;  the  dragon  boats  scatter 
prayers,  sham  gold-leaf,  bank-notes,  and  ingots;  the 
crews  defy  and  race  one  another,  they  foul,  collide, 
and  end  the  day  in  glorious  free  fights.  The  shrewd- 
'est  and  most  intelligent  merchants,  bankers,  compra- 
dors, and  servants  believe  in  a  real,  material  water- 
dragon  with  fiery  eyes,  and  abjectly  fear  his  potamic 
majesty.  One  year  it  was  believed  that  the  dragon 
had  sent  its  young  to  devour  all  the  obnoxious  for- 
eigners on  Shameen.  Servants  were  in  panic,  afraid 
to  stir  after  dark,  and  late  revelers  saw  "something" 
in  the  grass  near  the  club;  but  when  "it"  coiled 
around  the  foot  of  the  American  consul,  the  young 
cobra  was  killed  with  a  walking-stick,  bottled,  and 
sent  to  the  Hongkong  Museum,  where  it  is  still  fear- 
fully regarded  by  the  Chinese  as  the  B,eal  Thing,  at 
least  the  elder  son  of  the  great  water-dragon. 

In  the  hot  weather,  from  April  to  October,  Canton 
reeks  with  more  solid  smells  than  ever,  opium  fumes 
lie  low,  and  even  on  Shameen  the  air  is  too  thick  to 
breathe ;  one  only  strains  it  through  the  lungs.  All 
China  strips  to  the  waist,  and  Canton  is  inhabited  by 
living  bronzes  of  incomparable  tone  and  patina.  One 
gladly  takes  to  the  river  then,  and  sight-seeing  is  done 
in  boats  to  the  Ocean  Banner  Monastery,  where  i^ 
Buddhism  is  in  lowest  decay,  beggars  and  lepers  are 


452  CHINA:   THE   LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

many,  and  worshipers  few,  and  the  wolfish  priests 
are  not  far  removed  from  the  pampered  swine  they 
shelter  as  reincarnations  of  human  souls.)  One  goes 
to  the  great  ginger-factory,  sees  the  root  nine  times 
handled  in  the  many  processes  before  it  is  put  into 
jars — and  never  cares  for  ginger  more ;  and  one  goes  to 
the  Howqua  house,  if  introduced,  and  sees  the  untidy 
splendor,  the  magnificent  disorder,  and  the  rich 
discomfort  of  the  family  mansion  of  the  greatest  of 
Cantonese  merchants  of  East  India  Company  days. 
A  fat  young  Howqua  entertained  us  one  long,  warm 
afternoon,  social  officer  of  the  day,  picket  for  the 
army  or  clan  of  Howqua,  who  to  the  number  of  four 
hundred  mouths  are  said  to  inhabit  the  one  compound. 
He  showed  us  the  ancestral  hall,  the  European  office 
and  parlor,  with  its  imported  upholstery  horrors,  and 
then  the  sadly  neglected  gardens.  Quite  as  a  matter 
of  fact  he  showed  us,  too,  his  new  concubine  and  his 
little-foot  daughter,  ''Foolish  fashion,"  said  young 
Howqua,  when  we  commented  on  the  mites  of  slip- 
pers. "Then  why  do  you  do  it?"  we  asked.  "Oh, 
custom,  custom !  Who  can  prevent  custom  ? "  But 
the  Anti-foot-binding  League  had  not  then  been  in- 
augurated with  the  approval  of  princes  and  viceroys, 
scholars  and  mercliants ;  Kang  Yu  Wei  and  his  family 
were  not  then  famous.  Young  Howqua's  mind  ran 
to  money.  He  thought  only  in  dollars  and  taels,  and 
each  dusty  vase  in  his  show  apartments  was  paraded 
with  its  price— his  "  thousand-tael  led  lang  yao,"  liis 
"  hundred-tael  I'apple-green, "  his  "thousand-tael 
Sung-time,  Cgg-plant  color."  "  How  much  you  think 
I  get  New  York  that  vase  ? "  was  his  eager  question  as 


THE  CHINESE  NEW  YEAR  455 

each  piece  of  porcelain  or  bronze  was  admired.  Keen, 
shrewd,  intelligent,  and  in  a  measure  well  informed 
as  this  silken  scion  of  the  great  house  was,  he  was  as 
abjectly  superstitious  as  the  lowliest  boatman;  be- 
lieved as  much  in  dragons  and  spirits,  and  the  efficacy 
of  gongs  and  fire-crackers,  as  any  of  his  people ;  would 
doubtless  prostrate  himself  before  a  little  water- 
snake,  as  a  great  viceroy  once  did  at  a  review  of  his 
foreign-drilled  troops;  and  possessed  not  a  trace  of 
patriotism  or  public  spirit  in  the  Western  sense. 

It  is  a  mad  world,  this  Chinese  one,  and  we  shall 
never  arrive  at  the  half  of  its  madness.  We  shall 
never  account  for  the  Chinese,  never  fathom  the 
infinite  purpose,  never  know  why  the  Chinese  were 
ever  created ;  how  the  type  was  produced  or  evolved 
from  the  different,  yellower  clay  than  the  Caucasian. 
We  shall  never  explain  the  racial  mystery. 

In  despair  at  my  own  changing  and  deflected  vision, 
I  have  asked  a  hundred  residents,  or  "old  China 
hands,"  the  same  questions :  "  Who  does  know  these 
people  ?  Who  really  understands  them  ? "  And  the 
direct  answers  have  always  been  negative. 

No  one  has  penetrated  or  uncovered  or  satisfactorily 
analyzed  the  Chinese  brain,  or  whatever  lies  behind 
those  blank,  stolid,  immovable  yellow  countenances ; 
no  one  has  comprehended  the  temperament  so  op- 
posite, so  unsympathetic,  so  antipathetic,  nor  un- 
raveled the  threads  of  a  character  too  complex  and 
tangled,  too  contradictory  and  inconsistent,  too  baf- 
fling and  evasive,  too  Asiatic  for  us  ever  to  have  insight 
there.     There  is  no  starting-point  from  which  to  ar- 


456  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

rive  at  an  understanding ;  always  the  eternal,  impas- 
sable gulf  yawns  between  the  minds  and  temperaments 
of  Occident  and  Orient. 

"I  have  been  twenty  years  trying  to  find  out  how 
they  are  governed,  what  the  attitude  of  the  governed 
is  to  their  rulers,  and  what  the  ruling  class  think, 
mean,  and  have  in  aim,"  said  one  serious  observer.  "  I 
thought  I  saw  the  answer  in  my  first  3'ear,  but  not 
now.  It  is  too  late  or  too  soon  for  conclusion.  You 
will  not  find  any  one  knowing  less  about  China  than 
the  sinologues.  They  are  all  in  the  clouds,  lost  in 
the  fogs  and  mists  of  the  Chinese  language  and  the 
poetry  of  2000  B.C.  Something  queer  comes  over  the 
best  of  men  when  they  get  very  far  in  the  Chinese 
language  and  its  classical  literature.  They  become 
abnormal,  impersonal,  detached,  dissociated  from  the 
living  world,  from  the  white-skinned,  red-blooded 
human  races  of  the  West.  Something  in  the  climate, 
some  mental  microbe,  gets  into  all  of  us  here  in  China. 
The  longer  we  stay  here  the  less  we  see,  the  less  we 
are  fitted  to  judge." 

Sinologues  assured  me  that  the  treaty-port  mer- 
chants did  not  know  the  people,  since  they  come  in 
contact  with  only  one  branch  of  the  mercantile  classes, 
since  they  never  study  the  language,  and  in  their  social 
life  never  touch  the  Chinese. 

When  I  asked  one  long  in  government  employ  if 
his  thirty  years  in  their  midst  led  him  to  believe  that 
the  Chinese  could  be  regenerated,  awakened,  or  gal- 
vanized to  some  semblance  of  modern  life,  he  ex- 
claimed :  "  No,  never !  It  is  not  possible  to  regenerate 
China  as  China.     It  cannot  be  effected  from  within 


THE   CHINESE   NEW  YEAR  457 

by  the  Chinese.  The  motive  power  is  not  here. 
They  do  not  want  to  be  regenerated.  They  do  not 
see  that  there  is  anything  the  matter.  It  would  not 
disturb  the  Pekingese  to  have  France  seize  all  Kwang- 
tung,  nor  excite  the  Cantonese  to  have  Russia  seize 
all  north  of  the  Yangtsze.  They  are  indifferent  to  it 
all.  They  do  not  realize  that  China,  the  nation,  was 
whipped  by  Japan.  It  was  only  Li  Hung  Chang  and 
those  Manchus  up  north  who  lost  "  face."  Not  until 
the  foreign  bayonet  actually  pricks  them  do  they  feel. 
As  a  province  of  Asiatic  Russia,  North  China  might 
improve.  A  strong  government  is  good  for  them. 
See  what  the  Dutch  have  done  with  them  in  Java. 
Until  they  cut  their  queues  there  is  no  hope  of  their 
awakening.  They  can  never  be  men  while  they  wear 
those  petticoats  and  soft-soled  shoes.  A  century  of 
subjection,  of  good,  hard  European  tyranny,  of  Russian 
domination  or  German  militarism,  might  'make  a 
man  of  him.'  After  that,  a  century  or  two  of  enlight- 
ened struggle  for  liberty,  then  united  China  and  the 
millennium."  One  talks  in  centuries  easily  in  China. 
A  taipan,  the  head  of  a  great  foreign  firm,  owned 
to  weariness  at  his  colleagues'  eternal,  conventional 
laudations  of  the  high  standard  of  Chinese  commer- 
cial honesty,  the  cut-and-dried  "  never-knew-a-China- 
man-to-break-his-word "  panegyrics.  "They  forget 
about  the  bank  comprador  who  disappeared  \\4th  a 
quarter  of  a  million,  the  silk  comprador  who  got 
away  with  sixty  thousand  and  dozens  of  cases  before 
this  last  affair  of  the  bank  shares,  when  the  Chinese 
went  squarely  back  on  their  written  pledges  and  got 
a  tao-tai's  judgment  to  sustain  them.     There  are  hon- 


458  CHINA:   THE  LONG-LIVED  EMPIRE 

est  and  dishonest  merchants  in  China,  as  everywhere, 
but  the  dishonest  merchant  seldom  becomes  the  great 
merchant  anywhere,  and  foreign  trade  is  all  in  the 
hands  of  such  old,  reliable  firms.  The  power  of  the 
gilds  is  enormous,  and  mutual  protection  obliges  the 
gilds  to  cast  out  rank  offenders.  Chinese  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility is  strong,  the  saving  virtue  of  the  race, 
all  that  holds  the  rotten  old  empire  together ;  but  all 
of  commercial  honor  and  morality  is  not  centered 
here  any  more  than  in  England  or  America — it  only 
averages  up.  As  there  is  no  official  honesty,  no  stan- 
dard there  whatever,  the  merchant  class  shine  by 
contrast.  The  Chinese  are  credited  with  the  greatest 
intellectual  capacity  of  any  race,  and  what  use  do 
they  make  of  it  ?  For  two  thousand  years  the  Chinese 
have  only  learned  by  heart,  committed  to  memory, 
poetry  and  metaphysical  essays,  the  mechanical  edu- 
cation of  a  parrot.  Look  at  their  rulers  at  Peking 
throughout  the  whole  nineteenth  century  !— not  a  man 
among  them.  Look  at  the  present  Emperor !  Every 
coolie  grins  at  the  way  his  stepmother  locks  him  up 
and  bullies  him.  There  is  no  dignity  in  his  doAvnfall. 
He  is  exactly  the  figure  you  see  in  eveiy  Chinese  thea- 
ter, the  henpecked  man,  the  conventional  butt,  the 
laughing-stock  in  every  farce  and  comedy.  And  the 
reformers  are  impractical  theorists,  dreamers ;  even 
Kang  Yu  Wei  is  the  greatest  classical  scholar  of  his 
day.  All  China  is  wrong  and  out  of  joint,  but  do  not 
ask  me  how  it  is  to  be  put  right." 

"  Can  China  be  regenerated  ? "  repeated  another  old 
resident.  "  Only  by  immersion  for  forty  days  forty 
fathoms  deep.     The  fresh  start  must  be  a  clean  start. 


THE   CHINESE  NEW  YEAE  459 

Soap  and  carbolic  will  do  more  than  diplomacy  or 
gunpowder.  They  are  the  first  necessary  factors  in 
any  regeneration  of  this  country.  If  they  burn  the 
classics  and  behead  the  literati,  they  might  make  some 
start  without  soap  and  water." 

All  replies  to  such  questions  were  equally  discour- 
aging, equally  biased,  vague,  or  flippant,  and  the 
Chinese  in  the  present  and  the  future  remain  prob- 
lems more  baffling  and  unsatisfactory  each  time  one 
attempts  them. 

China  is  very  old,  very  tired,  sick.  It  craves  rest 
and  peace— anything  for  peace;  peace  at  any  price. 
It  does  not  want  to  be  dragged  out  into  the  fierce 
white  light  and  the  contests  of  the  new  century.  But 
how  can  it  prevent  it  ?  Will  it  rouse  itself  from  its 
long  paralysis  and  benumbed  opium  sleep,  or  will  it 
be  rudely  awakened,  broken  up  this  time  on  the 
wheel  of  progress? 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abdication  of  Ewangsu,  134, 135,  141, 

142. 
Agriculture,  Temple  of,  202. 
Amiot,  Father,  160. 
Anting  Gate,  227,  228. 
Astronomers,  87,  158. 
Attiret,  160. 
Audiences,  imperial,  107,  111,  125,  126, 

136,  146. 

Batuta,  Ibn,  9. 

Beggars,  189,  190,  437. 

Bells,  101,  104,  266,  267. 

Beresford,  Lord  Charles,  313,  389. 

Birds,  trained,  180,  345. 

Bishop,  Mrs.,  10,  390. 

Bokhara,  wreck  of  the  steamship,  288. 

Bore  of  Haugchow,  294,  304,  307,  309, 

317. 
Brandt,  HeiT  A.  von,  122. 
Bricks,  47. 
Bridsres,  58,  74,  188,  189,  215,  216,  233, 

297,  320. 
British  legation,  143,  144. 
Buddha,  living,  93,  105. 
Buddh  Gaya,  219. 

Buddhism,  94,  104,  384,  394,  408,  451. 
Bushell,  Dr.,  11,  247. 

Cairo,  69. 

Camels,  24,  25,  84,  227,  234,  238,  261, 

262. 
Canals,  21,  24,   57,  226,  295,  296,  297, 

340,  380. 
Canton,  431^52. 
Carpet-weaving,  25,  193. 
Cart,  the  Peking,  39,  81,  82,  83. 
Cassini,  Count,  238. 
Cave  temples,  394. 
Chang  Chi  Tung,  the  viceroy,  374. 
Chang-ping-cliou,  261. 
Chang  Yen  Hoon,  Sir,  206. 
Cha-tao,  243. 
Chefoo,  276,  277. 
Chestnuts,  184. 
Chien-men  Gate,  77,  110. 


Chihll,  14. 

Chinkiang,  337,  338. 

Chrysanthemums,  184,  210,  291. 

Chun,  Prince,  119. 

Chu-yung-kuan,  240. 

Classics,  Hall  of,  98,  101. 

Clepsydra,  101,  437,  438. 

Coal,  32,  216,  219,  277,  374,  423. 

Concessions,  23,  375. 

Confucian  Temple,  94-97. 

Confucius,  3,  97,  279. 

Cormorants,  345. 

Corruption,  88,  111. 

Cossacks,  150,  206. 

Counterfeitere,  200,  293,  354. 

Coup  d'dtat,  134,  135. 

Crab-apples,  185. 

Crickets,  183,  259. 

Curio-markets,  26,  189,  196,  197,  292, 

434. 
Curzon,  Lord,  11,  188. 
Customs,  Imperial  Maritime,  154,  155, 

166. 
Czar,  the,  112,  115,  375. 

Dagoba,  269,  270. 

Decorations  and  orders,  153. 

Deer,  the  David  or  tail,  215. 

Detroit,  United  States  steamship,  352. 

Dragon,  festival  of,  448,  451. 

Dragon,  Order  of,  153. 

Drum-tower,  101. 

Duck-farming,  321. 

Dust-storms,  183,  275. 

Eagles,  32,  37. 

Edicts,  imperial,  108,  128. 

Edkins,  Dr.,  105. 

Egypt,  406,  407. 

E-ho  Park,  124. 

Elephants,  110. 

Embroideries,  191,  192. 

Empress  Ahluta,  119. 

Empress  Dowager,  106,  109,  112,  118, 

120,  127,  132,  133,  134,  135,  136,  139, 

140,  220,  272. 


463 


464 


INDEX 


Empress  Yehonala,  121,  123,  132,  135, 

189. 
Enamels,  200,  272. 
Eunuclis,  123,  143,  174,  210. 
Examinations,  87,  88,  442. 
Execution-grounds,  210,  438. 

Fairs,  179,  180,  191. 

Fa-Ti  gardens,  447,  448. 

Faura,  Padre,  288. 

Favier,  Bishop,  161. 

Featiier-dusters,  183. 

Fiddle  boat,  373. 

Figurines,  26. 

Howers,  184,  209,  210,  213,  447,  448. 

Foot-binding,  189,  252,  452. 

Foot-boats,  2i)9. 

Fortune,  Robert,  357. 

Four-wheeled  junk,  373. 

Funeral,  58,  78. 

Furs,  192. 

Fus,  143,  166,  167. 

"  Garden  of  China,"  297. 

Gardens,  103,  104,  106,  447,  448. 

Genoa,  430. 

Ghost,  temple  of  Manchu,  167. 

Ghost,  Tientsin,  27. 

Gobi,  Desert  of,  183. 

Goddess  of  Mercy,  Kwanyin,  39,  219, 

270. 
Golden  Island,  337. 
Golf-links,  385. 

Gordon,  General,  153,  296,  342. 
Gorst.  Mr.  Harold,  119. 
Grant,  General  U.  S.,  43. 
Grease,  227. 
Guides,  433. 

Haining,  300,  303,  310,  314. 

Han  River,  370,  372. 

Hangchow,  310,  314. 

Hankow,  131,  360,  363,  364,  372. 

Hanyang,  374,  375. 

Hart,  Sir  Robert,  154,  166,  157. 

Harvestinj.',  231. 

Hata-nien  Gate,  66,  70. 

Head-dress,  Manchu,  77,  172,  173,  327. 

Heaven,  Temple  of,  201,  202. 

Henry,  Prince  of  Prussia,  108, 132, 136. 

llienfung,  the  Emperor,  117,  119. 

Hills,  the  western,  216. 

Ho,  Admiral,  398,  401. 

Hongkong,  430,  431. 

Honor,  coinmercial,  457,  458. 

Horrors,  Temple  nf,  437. 

Horseliver  Gorjre,  420. 

House-I)oats,  50,  51,  295  319,  390. 

Howqua  family,  452. 

Hue,  Abbd,  4,  10,  55,  78,  190,  352,  389. 

Hu  kau,  347. 


Hunan,  377. 
Hunting  Park,  216. 

I,  Prince  of,  197. 

Ichang,  384,  385,  386. 

Ichang  Gorge,  394,  397,  401,  402,  405, 

425,  426. 
Iron-works,  374. 

Jftde,  198,  199,  223. 

Japanese  war,  43,  65,  126, 127, 128, 181, 

277,  280. 
Jehol,  106,  117,  118,  1?8,  144,  248. 
Jesuits,  10,  86,  158,  159,  288. 
Jones,  General,  339,  340. 
Jugglers,  292. 

Kaiping,  16,  32. 
Kalgan,  244,  247. 
Kang,  172,  173,  250. 
Kanghsi,  the  Emperor,  86,  93,  103,  122. 
158.  ,       ,      ^ 

Kang  Yu  Wei,  131,  134,  136,  438.  462. 

455. 
Kao-liang,  30,  31. 
Khyber  Pass,  237. 
Kiao-chau,  132,  141,  278,  376. 
Kieiilung,  the  Emperor,  66,   98,   106, 

167,  168,  269,  316,  437. 
King-te-chen,   159,  348,  351,  353.  354, 

355. 
Kipling,  Rudyard,  443. 
Kiiikiang,  353,  354. 
Kuwloon,  430,  431. 
Krnpp  guns,  335,  342. 
Kublai  Khan,  62,  86, 103,  105, 122,  168, 

2-J6,  237,  248. 
Kuling,  358. 
Kung,   Prince,  70,  117,  118,  119,  124, 

128. 
Ku-peikou,  247. 
Kwangsu,  the  Emperor,  107,  109,  110, 

120,  121,  122,  124,  126,  226. 
Kwanyin,  39,  219,  270. 
Kwatsze,  390. 

Lacquers,  330. 

Lamasery,  90,  93,  269,  270, 

Lanterns,  195,  444. 

Legations,  66,  143,  144,  145,  146. 

Liao-tung  peninsula,  131,  141. 

Libraries,  98,  105,  106,  337. 

Life-boats,  398. 

Li  Hung  Chang,  22,  23,  111,  112,  115, 

120,  127,  163,  176,  179,  279,  389. 
Ling-gardens,  298. 
Litter,  mule,  233. 
Little,  Mr.  Archibald,  389,  890. 
Liu-kan  Gorge,  419,  420,  425. 
Liuli-chang,  1'.'5,  196. 
Liu  Min  Chan,  124. 
LuMK-fu  ssu,  180, 183. 
Lu  Yu,  420. 


INDEX 


466 


Magpie,  188. 

Manchuria,  37,  38. 

Manchus,  47,  48,  62,  77,  89,  103,  115, 

117,  133,  228,  230. 
Manila,  observatory  at,  288. 
Margary,  the  explorer,  385. 
Mecca,  106,  167. 
Medicines,  184. 
Meiling  Pass,  352. 
Meishan,  the,  73,  103,  105,  117. 
Memorials,  108,  124. 
Menders,  47. 

Military,  14,  37,  43,  49,  56,  228. 
Ming  dynasty,  48,  103,  106,  253,  254, 

259. 
Missions,  158,  159,  160,  161,  162,   163, 

164,  287,  288,  356,  372. 
Mitsaug  Gorge,  423. 
Mixed  Court,  285. 

Mohammedans,  26,  106,  162,  163,  442. 
Monastery,  384. 
Mongolia,  247. 
Mongols,  74,  144,  247. 
Montauban,  General,  or  Count  Falikao, 

58,  221,  222. 
Morrison,  Dr.,  390. 
Mukden,  106, 128. 
Mulberry,  298,  334. 

Xanking,  131,  341,  342. 

Nankow,  234,  237,  238. 

Naples,  430. 

New  Year,  the,  109,  199,  213,  444,  447, 

448. 
Nile,  the,  69,  398,  402. 
Niu-kan  Gorge,  420. 
Norman,  Mr.  Henry,  11,  93. 

Observatory,  Peking,  86,  163. 
Odoric,  Friar,  9,  103,  105, 122,  158. 
Opium,  389. 

Orphan  Islands,  345,  346. 
Otter-flshing,  386. 

Pagoda-stone,  401. 

Pailow,  74,  87,  89,  297,  320. 

Palace,  Peking,  7.1,  105,  108. 

Palace,  Suujmer,  106, 117,  143,  220-225. 

Pa-li-chuan,  219. 

Palikao,  Count,  or  General  Montauban, 

58,  221. 
Parker,  Dr.  Peter,  145. 
Parkes,  Sir  Harry,  55, 143. 
Passports,  252,  295,  319. 
Pa-ta-Iing,  243. 
Peach-blow  vase,  198. 
Peanuts,  185,  251. 
Pearl  River,  43. 
Pechili,  Gulf  of,  13. 
Peitaho,  35. 
Peitang,  the,  160,  161. 
Peking,  61-200. 


Peonies,  213,  448. 

Persimmons,  185,  261. 

Pigeons,  186,  187. 

Plague,  bubonic,  442,  443. 

Polo,  Marco,  9,  50,  51,  62,  81,  215,  337, 

341,  389,  437. 
Pope,  the,  159,  161. 
Poppy-culture,  389. 
Potteries,  348,  351,  438. 
Poyang,  Lake,  347,  352. 
Prejevalski,  M.,  247. 
Prisons,  441. 
Pu'erh-cha,  368. 
Pumpelly,  Professor,  216. 

Race-course,  205,  206,  207,  363. 
Railways,  15,  16,  17,  18,  31,  247,  280, 

281,  431. 
Rapids,  408,  411,  412,  421,  422,  425. 
Rashuddin,  9,  298. 
Rats,  437. 

Reformers,  6,  131,  132,  133. 
Reid,  Rev.  Gilbert,  165. 
Richtofen,  Baron,  216. 
Riots,  21,  22,  281,  339,  432. 
River  steaniers,  336,  431. 
Roaches,  52. 

Roads,  39,  44,  59,  220,  232,  233,  239. 
Romsdal,  426. 
Rontgen  rays,  176. 
Russians,   62,  115,  125,  141,   206,  207, 

363,  364,  375. 

Samovar,  47,  49,  247. 

Sang-de-boeuf  glaze,  351,  354. 

Schaal,  Father,  158,  162. 

Scherzer,  Consul,  351. 

Sesame,  185. 

Sha-ho,  232,  233,  261. 

Shameen,  432. 

Shanghai,  279-290. 

Shanhaikwan,  30-49. 

Shansi,  131. 

Shasi,  380,  383. 

Shi-flwang-Ti,  36,  47. 

Shimonoseki,  treaty  of,  141,  238,  334, 

383,  389. 
Shoe,  cotton,  56,  57. 
Shoe  Rock,  347. 
Shops,  90,  192,  193,  194,  195,  196,  200, 

292,  353.  354,  434. 
Sicawei,  288. 
Silver  Island,  337. 
Sinologues,  7,  82,  145,  456. 
Slumming,  288,  371,  433,  437,  441. 
Smith,  Rev.  Arthur,  10,56. 
Snuff,  194. 
Spies,  43,  152. 
Straw  braid,  277. 
Street  signs,  194. 
Student-interpreters,  144. 
Sun-dial,  101. 


466 


INDEX 


"  Susau  "  of  Canton,  432. 
Sweetmeats,  185,  200. 
Szecbuan,  334,  389. 

Taiping  rebeUion,  140,  296,  341,  342, 

353,  378. 
Taku,  13. 
Tallow-tree,  298. 
^Taoism,  203,  204. 
Tatnall,  Commodore,  13. 
Ten,  90.   357,  358,  365,  367,  369,  370, 

371,  372,  378. 
Theater,  293. 
Tientsin,  20-29. 
Tientsin  River,  14. 
Tiles,  yellow,  73. 
Ti-tu,   or  governor,  of   Peking,    102, 

111. 
Tombs,   253,   254,  256,   259,   281,  385, 

442. 
Tongkn,  16,  17. 
Tongslian,  32,  277. 
Tourist  travel,  8,  9. 
Trolltinders,  425. 

Tsien-tang  River,  294,  301,  313,  316. 
Tsiu  Tan  Rapids  and  village,  421,  422. 
Tsung-li  Yaniuii,  131,  149,  151. 
Tsung-ming  Island,  334,  335. 
Tungchih,  the  Emperor,  118,  119. 
Tungchow,  57,  58,  275. 
Tung-ting  Lake,  377,  378. 
Tung-wen  College,  164. 
Typhoons,  288. 


Verbeist,  Father,  86, 168, 162. 
Victoria,  the  city  of,  430. 
Voltaire,  160. 

Wall,  the  Great,  of  Chefoo,  277. 
Wall,  the  Great,  of  China,  35,  36,  37, 

40,  CO,  227,  239,  243,  244,  248. 
Wars,  37,  40,  43,  48,  126,  127,  128,  131, 

141. 
Water-clock.  437,  438. 
Weddings,  44,  81,  121,  299. 
Wei-hai-wei,  141,  278. 
Western  hills,  the,  216. 
Whistles,  pigeon,  186,  187. 
Williams,  Dr.  Wells,  10, 145. 
Willow-pattern,  291. 
Wilson,  General  James  H.,  4,  11,  244. 
Wonders  of  the  world,  294. 
Wuchang,  375,  376. 
Wusung,  280. 
Wu-ta-ssu,  219. 

Yamun,  149,  151,  322,  331,  356. 
Yangtsze  River,  333-429. 
Yellow  City.  65,  73. 
Yellow  Peril,  4,  342. 
Yellow  River,  279. 
Yellow  Temple,  269,  270. 
Yo-chau,  377. 

Yule,  Colonel  Henry,  2,  4,  9. 
Yung  Cheng,  the  Emperor,  93,  160. 
Yunglo,  the  Emperor,  65,  86,  101,  104, 
202,  244,  252,  253,  256,  267. 


109 
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